Tired of politics, I’d decided to write about sandwiches this week. But then the SunPost told me they’re doing yet another special issue next week, all about food. So you’ll have to wait on the sandwiches. Tune in though because they’re really good sandwiches, beloved by everyone from Iggy Pop, to Jay-Z, to undercover cops.

Question: Is it really special if the special issues are every other week? I swear I won’t be surprised to one day see the special Cosmetic Surgery Issue: The Breast Matters. Note to editors if that happens: How about a reader contest to redesign some of our least favorite local politicians? Maybe we’d all feel better about getting screwed if they were hotter.

I kid because I love.

Anyway, the best cosmetic surgeon this week is County Mayor Carlos Alvarez. He sent a proposal to the county’s Charter Review Task Force aimed directly at some of the unsightly bulges on the County Commission. Alvarez proposed to radically alter the commission’s composition through term limits, raises and the addition of several at-large seats.

I don’t think the term limits are a good idea because I’ve seen the chaotic results of that experiment in the Florida Legislature. Legislative politics are now nearly indistinguishable from those of a typical college frat. Term limits have had the effect of forcing the ambitious to rise to leadership quickly and brutally, often well before they are ready. Then they’re out and the next group has a go. Meanwhile, the lobbyists and bureaucrats who stick around actually run the game because they have time to learn it.

But I love the idea of adding some at-large seats. There was a time when carving out 13 districts made sense. A coalition of black and Hispanic politicos pushed that change through so the commission would more accurately reflect the community. The problem has been that because each commissioner only has to answer to small groups of voters, they have no incentive to think broadly and strategically about the entire community. Instead, they cut deals to keep their fiefdoms intact.

The time has come to find a way to introduce that big-picture thinking into the commission hive mind, and a well-considered addition of commissioners elected by the entire county may do it. The raises also may help encourage a different class of potential leaders to take the risk of running for office. The caveat should be a mechanism for increased scrutiny of those officials. If we pay them full-time salaries, we deserve their full attention.

On a related note, here’s another Quixotic quest for Alvarez to consider. I was chatting with county elections chief Lester Sola the other day and he has a brilliant idea deserving of support. Sola is the amiable and professional fellow who inherited the broken down jalopy that was the elections department a few years ago. He seems to be turning the place around and that should be encouraged.

Sola is trying to get all the municipalities to coordinate their elections with county elections. There are some three dozen villages, towns and cities in this sprawling county, and they each have their elections according to whatever chaotic timetable suits their agenda. The clerks of each municipality are responsible for the elections, although they all contract with the county for the apparatus necessary to conduct them.

In these fiscally tight times, it makes no sense for a small city to have its election in, say, March, when it could as easily do it in November.

I asked Sola what the difference was in terms of price. As an example, he showed me two invoices for recent city of Miami Beach elections. One was for a municipal election on Nov. 15, 2005. The invoice itemizes various costs, such as printing ballots, labor and trucks. The total the county charged the city was $88,879.

Compare that to the amount the county charged the city in 2006 to participate in the countywide election — $5,962. The difference is that the county absorbs most of the costs of countywide elections. So there would be enormous financial savings over time if every municipality coordinated with the county schedule.

But that’s not why I care. The real reason this is a brilliant idea is that if all the local elections are held on one predictable date, it will encourage more people to vote.

What reasonable person, juggling work, family, traffic, etc., is going to keep track of which Tuesday in May to go vote for some minor city official the local media barely covered? We’re somewhat trained to think about November as the election month, as more of us vote at least in the national elections.

But if you’re already planning to vote for a county race or referendum you care about, you may stick around long enough to check a few more boxes on that ballot. Voter drives could be coordinated. There are a lot of clear advantages. Sola told me it would help even if all the cities got together and picked one common date, separate from the county schedule.

From an existential point of view, what is the purpose of having elections where almost no one shows up? In the case of that Miami Beach election in 2005, when only 11 percent turned out to vote, it works out to more than $18 per vote, not counting whatever additional money the city spent on that election. That’s expensive.

In contrast look at that Nov. 7, 2006 election the city coordinated with the county for less than six grand. Nearly 15,000 Miami Beach residents voted in that one. You do the math. “It’s more bang for the buck,” Sola told me. “I wouldn’t expect us to suddenly get to 90 percent participation, but to go from five or 10 percent in some cases to 30 or 40 percent, that’s a great change.”

That right there may be why the municipalities haven’t immediately adopted this common sense approach to their elections. Local elections are about getting as many supporters to vote as possible and as few opponents to vote.

Over the years this has been refined to a science by a small industry of consultants who put the same people on the ballot time and again. The campaigns have a better chance to control the outcome if the turnout is small. If thousands more people start voting, that throws off the formula. Suddenly the usual tactics don’t work as well.

It is not uncommon for elected officials, from local to national, to constantly redraw the boundaries of their districts to protect themselves from challengers. Keeping the vast majority of the electorate disinterested in what goes on behind the curtains is another tool.

So I’m putting that out there for you to consider — one community, one date, one vote. It makes sense. Maybe too much sense.

Comments? E-mail wakefield@miamisunpost.com.