Voter turnout in Cumberland County municipal elections is less than impressive

Fall is early this year. I’ve got a big smile on my face when I say that.

Really, it’s almost like we skipped August and went straight to September. The weather’s still warm, but the scorching stuff seems mostly behind us.

So we’re all free to plunge into our favored fall nostalgia. Maybe it’s about high school or college football for you. Or fresh apples — and cider — from the nearest orchard. Maybe you just can’t wait for Halloween. Or perhaps it’s enough just to see the leaves turn color — the swamp maples, sumacs and sweet gums that I see on my daily walks with the dogs were already flashing some red by August’s second week, even before the asters and goldenrod make their first appearance. Some of the migratory birds — thrushes and whip-poor-wills, to name two — have already left town for their farther-south winter quarters. And it’s time to stack some wood for the firepit and the fireplace.

All those things are on my fall hit parade. And there’s one more, one where it appears I don’t have much company: local politics. It’s municipal election season, and I’ll be asking the same question I ask in every odd-numbered year: Will anybody care?

In these politically troubled days, I’m hearing variations on this question a lot: Will democracy survive?

I’m pretty confident that the answer is “yes!” But I’m also confident that it won’t survive on the strength of voter turnout, especially in years when there are no statewide or national candidates on the ballot. For those elections, democracy has been unconscious for decades. And I don’t see any harbingers of a resurrection.

Voters in Fayetteville and the rest of Cumberland County’s municipalities will go to the polls for a primary election on Oct. 7 and then make their final decisions on Nov. 4. Well, a few of them will. Most will stay home or otherwise find a way to avoid their civic responsibilities.

How do I know that? I’ve watched those elections for more than 25 years now. And when I arrived in town back in 1999, it was already a long-established pattern. Most voters just don’t care about municipal elections.

Why? Perhaps our elected officials have given us the reason — too many things never change. Too many problems don’t get solved. Too many goals get missed. And then when problems get fixed and goals are hit, many of our leaders don’t make sure everyone knows about their success — an odd thing for a politician, I know.

Or maybe it’s just that in this busy town, where so many people hold down multiple jobs and try to raise families, there just isn’t time.

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is abysmal.

According to State Board of Elections statistics, in the 2023 primary, 10,751 voters showed up at the primary polling places. That’s 8.4 percent of nearly 128,000 registered voters at that time. And the municipal elections in November did only a little better at drawing participation.

Even though the voter rolls had improved by nearly 25,000 residents, turnout was only 13.3 percent. The increase in voter registration did little to improve the numbers of people showing up.

Remember, 2023 was not an anomaly. The voter turnout was typical, normal, and just what we should have expected.

Why? Gubernatorial and presidential elections are raucous, gaudy, attention-capturing events.

But governors and presidents don’t have nearly the real impact on a community that a mayor and City Council can exert. The taxes on your house? The quality of police and fire protection? Waste pickup? Road repairs? Sidewalk building? Sensible zoning that makes this a beautiful community (or fails!)? These are all things that touch every one of us every day. And yet most of us seem to care more — and get involved more — when it becomes the state or national team sport, Red vs. Blue, in which few of us ever win much and most of us end up shaking our heads at the general rancor and stupidity.

There are a lot of candidates out there. Some of them are good and experienced. Some of them leave us wondering why. But there will be winners, and only the voters can make that call.

The CityView roundup of primary candidates showed 10 candidates for mayor in Fayetteville’s primary. Hope Mills has 10 residents running for its Board of Commissioners. Spring Lake has 11. I can find good leaders on each of those lists. And I can find candidates who are stunningly unqualified. You can, too, if you take a look.

And yet, it’s likely that less than 10 percent of you will bother to influence those decisions and elevate the best and brightest to a spot on the November ballot. It’s a longstanding, cynical joke that many of our City Council seats will be given to the candidate who has the most friends and the biggest family. Qualifications are far less relevant.

Next time you feel moved to complain about the quality of city life, ask yourself this: Did I vote? Did I help select the people running my government? If the answer is “no,” maybe it’s better to keep your mouth shut and just take another bite of that fine fall apple.

Read CityView Magazine’s “Fall in Fayetteville” September 2025 e-edition here.