George:

We made the switch [to the general election date for city council] in June, but it was prospectively for the the 2002 elections, which are now switched from May 2002 until November 2002. We were the first city in Va to make the change, but as you can see, we have not yet had the experience of actually running the election.

We had done an analysis of every May election since 1990 and compared May turnout with the turnout in the subsequent November elections that were held the same years (90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 00). The May turnout average was barely over 20% for the decade while the November turnout in the same years averaged over 50%. Thus, while we haven't yet run a November municipal election, the data strongly indicates that the turnout will be much higher.

Tim Kaine ([Mayor of Richmond, Virginia] electronic mail, September 10, 2001).