A public forum was held Tuesday evening at the Hopkinsville High School gymnasium to educate the public on partisan versus non-partisan elections.
There were three panelists at the forum hosted by the City of Hopkinsville Non-Partisan Elections Committee, which was established by Mayor Wendell Lynch earlier this year when council approved non-partisan local elections while maintaining the 12-ward structure last year, but Mayor Lynch vetoed the ordinance to allow more time for studies and community education.
There were three panelists present—Morgain Patterson, Director of Municipal Law at Kentucky League of Cities, Dr. Stephen Voss, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science at University of Kentucky and Dr. Scott Lasley, Political Science Professor and Department Head at Western Kentucky University.
Patterson says Madisonville is one of the most recent cities to shift to non-partisan local elections, and they also kept a ward system much like Hopkinsville wished to.
Dr. Voss says in this day and age he’s not sure if non-partisan elections really matter much in the long run, as people are both more able and quick to distinguish themselves as Republican or Democrat or other anyway.
Dr. Lasley says non-partisan elections have a history of benefiting the minority, whether that be political party or otherwise.
Questions were accepted on written cards from the audience, but public comments were not on the agenda. There will be another public forum on January 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the Hopkinsville City Council chambers that will allow for public comments and questions.