The silent referendum

If a city holds a school referendum and no one knows about it, will it pass?

They city of Madison has a $23.5 million school referendum on the ballot on November 7th and there hasn't been much coverage of it. Does that make it more or less likely to pass? I'm guessing less likely given the recent history of school referendums here.

I read the paper every single day and until about three weeks ago, I had forgotten that we were even having a school referendum in Madison. Today's article in the Wisconsin State Journal is the first real article I've seen on the topic in a while and it was not exactly a ringing endorsement of the plan.

Before that I had seen three "Vote Yes" yard signs and a display at my public library with information about the referendum. There have been some information meetings on it that have attracted a handful of people as well, but in this cluttered election with numerous things on the ballot, is that enough?

Granted, Madison is a progressive town that generally supports education and there is no organized opposition this time. However, the last school building referendum here in 2005 failed so without some sort of organized campaign to pass the referendum, the question "What has changed since last time?" will be hanging in the air of the voting booth for many people next Tuesday.

If people get into the voting booth and know nothing about a tax referendum, chances are a lot of them are voting 'no' rather than vote for something they know nothing about.