The Public Square® · The American Policy Roundtable

TPS Express: The Election No One Sees

·26 min·1 clip

A township parking lot replaced a beautiful view after months of trustee meetings nobody watched.

1. The Public Square® episode “TPS Express: The Election No One Sees” focuses on off-off election years and the local races that most voters ignore. 2. Wayne Shepherd hosts with Dave Zanotti, while Jeff Sanders, Melanie Elsie, Rob Walgate, and Alan C. Duncan join as voices tied to the show’s election-information work. 3. The episode asks whether low-turnout local elections should bother voters and whether people still believe “we, the people” do the work of government. 4. Dave Zanotti contrasts four-year election cycles with the way Americans only pay attention during midpoint elections and presidential years. 5. The hosts say turnout in some odd-year places can be 3%, 8%, or 12%, especially when there is little media coverage. 6. A township parking lot near a walking trail becomes the example of a local project that surprised neighbors only because they had not followed township trustee meetings. 7. The discussion links that surprise to tax levies, county services, and other decisions made in rooms where few voters show up. 8. Dave Zanotti says the local process feels like “a trip to the dentist,” because it requires attention to tedious ballot details and repeated civic responsibility. 9. The conversation argues that prosperity has made many Americans treat government like “this giant pickle,” rather than something citizens must actively run. 10. The speakers connect that attitude to local school boards and local judges, where small groups can change outcomes in a single election cycle. 11. Melanie Elsie recommends going to the county board of elections once a year and pulling the sample ballot before Election Day. 12. She says to Google or DuckDuckGo candidate names, open the candidate website first, and then read news coverage for conversational views. 13. She also says to look at who endorses each candidate, including names like the Fraternal Order of Police and the Teamsters. 14. Dave Zanotti says some ballot races have only one candidate, while others have multiple people and require more research. 15. Rob Walgate describes iVoters as an early online site that could take a mailing address and generate a general-election sample ballot. 16. He says the platform now works in all 50 states and that the 2024 cycle involved tens of thousands of races. 17. The tone stays conversational and self-aware, with several jokes about “drill, baby, drill,” baseball, and VeggieTales. 18. The format moves like a roundtable, with one speaker prompting another and several practical examples interrupting the commentary. 19. Listeners who follow local politics, school boards, and voting tools will get the most from it. 20. Listeners seeking a quick national-news recap will probably skip it.

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