Outcomes of the races already conducted on the Gulf Coast in 2018 resulted from the spending of hundreds thousands of dollars—only to be determined by tens of thousands of voters. However pleased individuals may or may not be with the outcomes of the races, it inevitably raises the question of how well you measure the will of the electorate when so few voters cast ballots at all.

For Dan DeLeo, who ran the Citizens for Better Schools committee in Sarasota during a successful campaign to renew a tax here, the format of a special election offers a valuable tool in promoting a message—focus. “For that 90-day period, we shine a really bright spotlight on education and investing in teachers and children,” he says. So every four years, an election has taken place in March on a tax referendum, and the measure doesn’t compete for headlines with presidential, gubernatorial or senatorial campaigns.

There’s selfish reasons too. Anyone who lives in a swing state and owns a television set knows how quickly voters burn out on politics. Robust advertising becomes more expensive—and more necessary—during a regular even-year election cycle. And whether anyone wants to talk about it, putting a question in front of voters—particularly one about getting taxed—becomes a trickier proposition if a low-information voter gets faced with the question for the first time when they look at their ballot on election day.

So here we are. Sarasota voters this week approved a school tax with 78.63 voters in favor. Manatee voted to put a new tax in place with just 51.39 percent of the vote. But a low number of voters in each county, 20.45 percent of eligible  in Sarasota and 23.99 percent in Manatee, participated in these critical elections at all.

And that comes a month after a much watched special election in state House District 72, the Sarasota area. There, Democrat Margaret Good pulled an impressive win in a seat held four seven years by Republicans, winning 52.18 percent of the vote—at least of the 36.1 percent of district voters who cast ballots. Of course, low turnout isn’t Good’s fault. No one expected the past office-holder to resign her seat and open this election up. Supporters of the school referendum, meanwhile, advocate to hold that vote in March.

Most voters, though, don’t pay so close attention to news to know these races will happen. One might say that means they shouldn’t vote in them anyway. Maybe we’re better off with low-info voters sidelining themselves. But it can’t help but feel undemocratic. After all, voters in Sarasota and Manatee will be taxed courtesy these referenda whether they voted or not. And Good now represents constituents regardless of whether they know it.

For political junkies like myself, it’s hard to imagine missing an election where hundreds of thousands get spent on messaging or where every political pundit in the country is watching the results to get a hint of what mid-terms will bring. But people have lives. Sarasota and Manatee schools went on spring break days after this election was held, so the parents who have a vested stake in the referenda may well have been more focused on vacation planning.

And these elections are not without cost. While the county election supervisors never complain about doing these races in Sarasota or Manatee, it takes poll workers, a printing of ballots and the wear on equipment to have elections throughout the year at odd times. But that’s just the price of keeping turnout low.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ Media Group.