Noting that action could be completed by the end of December by a simple majority vote of the Falls Church City Council to move the date of the City’s municipal election from May to November, starting in 2010.

F.C. Mayor Robin Gardner summed up a discussion of the proposal, as originally floated by Council members Lawrence Webb and Dan Sze, by suggesting the “time has come to act,” based on an overwhelming pattern in the past two decades showing that electoral turnouts in Falls Church in November elections double or even triple turnouts for May elections. Vice Mayor Hal Lippman characterized some comments opposing such a prospective shift from attendees at a public forum on the subject last week as “trite, self-serving, arrogant and elitist.”

If shifting the date of the F.C. City elections “enfranchises so many more people, how can anyone in his right mind oppose that?” Lippman intoned. Taking the other side, Councilman David Snyder said that holding elections in May “maximizes accountability” of local leaders.