Partisan vs. Nonpartisan Elections

Proponents of nonpartisan ballots suggest that:

Political parties are irrelevant to providing services.

Cooperation between elected officials belonging to different parties is more likely.

Proponents for partisan elections argue that:

The absence of party labels confuses voters; a voter who must choose from among a group of candidates whom she knows nothing about will have no meaningful basis in casting a ballot.

In the absence of a party ballot, voters will turn to whatever cue is available, which often turns out to be the ethnicity of a candidate's name.

Non-partisanship tends to produce elected officials more representative of the upper socioeconomic strata than of the general populace and aggravates the class bias in voting turnout, because in true non-partisan systems there are no organizations of local party workers to bring lower-class citizens to the polls on election day.

Listed below is the form of government for the thirty most populous cities in the United States, based on the most current U.S. Census projections. The table uses updated information from the member database at the National League of Cities.

Election Type of the 30 Most Populous Cities

Rank City Name State Election Type 1 New York NY Partisan 2 Los Angeles CA Non-Partisan 3 Chicago IL Non-Partisan 4 Houston TX Partisan 5 Phoenix AZ Non-Partisan 6 Philadelphia PA Partisan 7 San Antonio TX Non-Partisan 8 Dallas TX Non-Partisan 9 San Diego CA Non-Partisan 10 San Jose CA Non-Partisan 11 Detroit MI Non-Partisan 12 San Francisco CA Non-Partisan 13 Jacksonville FL Non-Partisan 14 Indianapolis IN Partisan 15 Austin TX Non-Partisan 16 Columbus OH Non-Partisan 17 Fort Worth TX Non-Partisan 18 Charlotte NC Partisan 19 Memphis TN Non-Partisan 20 Baltimore MD Partisan 21 Boston MA Non-Partisan 22 El Paso TX Non-Partisan 23 Milwaukee WI Non-Partisan 24 Denver CO Non-Partisan 25 Seattle WA Non-Partisan 26 Nashville TN Non-Partisan 27 Washington DC Partisan 28 Las Vegas NV Non-Partisan 29 Portland OR Non-Partisan 30 Louisville KY Partisan

Sources

MacManus, Susan A. and Charles S. Bullock, III. "The Form, Structure, and Composition of America's Municipalities in the New Millenium." In The Municipal Year Book 2003. Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association 2003.

Ross, Bernard and Myron A. Levine. Urban Politics: Power in Metropolitan American, 6th edition. Florence, KY: Wadsworth Publishing, 2000.

Svara, James H. Two Decades of Continuity and Change in American City Councils. Washington, D.C.: National League of Cities, September, 2003.