Most U.S. cities hold local elections at times that don't coincide with federal & state elections, & their turnout is accordingly low. Consolidating local elections with federal & state ones would make local electorates more demographically representative & have a profound impact
If you're concerned about "ballot fatigue" from a long ballot, then there are plenty of downballot elected offices that have no business being elected & should be appointed instead. No one should have to be voting on 20 judges, county coroners, etc.
The solution to this problem is to pass public campaign financing like some cities & states have done
This is the same type of reasoning used by those who outright oppose democracy & support things like literacy tests & other discriminatory barriers for voting. Voters in off-year local elections are often disproportionately older, whiter, & richer than those in even years
Nevada did this very thing earlier this year, & it was actually a bipartisan law proposed by the GOP secretary of state. Consolidating local & federal elections saves money on election admin & improves turnout for local office dailykos.com/stories/2019/6…
