The importance of voting in SRP elections

In April, environmental activists won the two of the four at-large seats. ‘At-large’ means they represent every property-owning household in the SRP service area (see the map below), of which there are about 645,000. For Seats #11 and #13 respectively, 5,549 and 5,360 votes were cast, so less than 1% of the electorate even voted. Anda McAfee won with a mere plurality in Seat #11 because her two opponents split the remaining votes. She and her colleague Nick Brown nevertheless cast full votes on SRP’s 14-member board.

The districts vote by acreage. Our district, 8, had no election this cycle. District 9 (north Tempe and Mesa) has about 30,000 acres coded gray and saw 458.41 votes casts, about 1.5% of the electorate.

The SRP tries to encourage voting by enclosing flyers in the utility bills that get delivered by mail. If you receive your utility bill electronically, there is no reminder. If your part of the map is coded gray and you own your property, you can probably vote. Please see the neighboring post (How to vote by mail in the April 7 2020 SRP election) for instructions on registering.