Denise Craig didn’t vote on Nov. 3.

“There’s no information readily accessible about the candidates,” Craig said. “There’s all kind of information about presidential candidates floating around, but who the local people are and what they stand for, I am not so sure.”

Craig, a Baldwinsville resident, isn’t the only one who didn’t head to the polls on Election Day. Only about 25 percent of voters cast their ballots during the local elections, according to Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny.

“We’re looking at about 26 percent turnout, maybe a little above depending on the absentees and affidavits that come in the mail over the next two weeks,” Czarny said. “It was similar to this four years ago, which was one of the lowest we’ve seen. It’s a four-year cycle, the county executive election, and it’s the lowest turnout every four years.”

So why is it so hard to get people to the polls for local elections? After all, those are the elections that affect them the most — town and county officials are the ones that set their tax rates, determine how their neighborhoods will look and generally make the decisions that have the most impact on their everyday lives. But according to Dr. Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and a professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, there are several factors that keep people from voting in so-called “off-year” elections.

“It’s the level of information and attention directed toward these elections,” Reeher said. “There’s an enormous difference between what the average citizen sees during a presidential election year versus an off election year. The level of attention and excitement and importance surrounding the presidential election is what’s bringing people in.”

He also pointed to the negativity surrounding politics at all levels.

“We need to change the culture of the way campaigns get run,” Reeher said. “The negative-character-oriented advertising contributes to [turning people away from voting], and so does the media in the way they report. The focus on conflict makes the story.”

Reeher pointed to a full-page spread by the Post-Standard in which the sole question was whether county legislative candidates would vote for a raise for themselves.

“That’s not the most important issue. The only reason people care about it is because you keep bringing it up,” he said. “It only serves to reinforce negative views about politicians.”

But many voters stayed home on Election Day simply because there was nothing to vote for.

“I voted, but with nearly all of the ballot in Van Buren running unopposed, it felt like an exercise in futility,” said Kathleen Jenne of Baldwinsville. “Even if I agree with a candidate, I would like to see them being challenged in order to offer voters a choice.”

Frieda Weeks of Liverpool agreed.

“[There were] only a couple of offices up where there was a choice in my town,” Weeks said. “Almost everyone had no one running against them. No way to change anything. I voted, but if I did not like the candidate and there was no choice, I didn’t cast a vote. [I’m] not sure whether it would send a message or not. My whole family left the polling place very frustrated.”

Reeher agreed that there were many uncontested races, something that’s become a trend over the last few off-year election cycles for a couple of reasons.

“These [positions] haven’t seen a real pay increase for a long time, and they’ve fallen behind in terms of pay scales below what I would consider reasonable,” he said. “The idea that you’re going to have a pay raise is toxic politically. If you ask for it, you’re just another disgusting government official.”

While pay has remained stagnant, the complexity of the job, be it town councilor or county legislator, has grown in light of increasing state mandates, the tax cap and growing public distaste for the position.

“These jobs that were once viewed as important instances of public service have now been replaced with the view that these are just a bunch of jerks in office, and let’s throw the bums out,” Reeher said. “You add all that up, and why would you want to run for that? It all seems pretty thankless at the end of the day.”

Czarny at the Board of Elections blamed another culprit: the vicious cycle of voter apathy.

“I think we’re in a chicken-and-egg situation,” he said. “People feel disillusioned with the government, so they don’t vote and they don’t participate, and thus the government is unresponsive to their needs because they’re not demanding it.”

So how do we fix the problem?

“There’s a lot of efforts in terms of early voting and mail-in voting, which we hope addresses it, but at the end of the day, we have to find value in voting, and it has to be done on a massive scale,” Czarny said. “[Right now], it’s hard not to be heartbroken. As someone who believes in democracy, who believes in the vote as one of our most sacred duties as citizens, it’s hard not to be depressed to see so many people deciding to just give up their voice. All we can do is continue to engage people as much as possible and hope to turn the tide at some point.”