Think Small

Rules are rules in Tennessee. When it came time to elect the mayor in Morrison, a hamlet of 547 people, no one wanted to run, but the county election commission insisted that an election be held anyway. No candidate emerged, but that was no problem: 43 out of 49 Morrison voters who showed up simply wrote the name of incumbent Mayor Harris Jacobs Jr. on the blank ballots. "We're not really backward or illiterate," explains Jacobs, a supervisor at an Air Force test facility who has served by default since 1969. "This is a nice little town with nice people."

The main reason: the exercise in democracy costs $400, a hefty sum for Morrison where the yearly budget of $18,000 operates the street lights, paves streets, and runs a public library and volunteer fire department. The only paid municipal employee is a part-time city recorder who earns $50 a month. The citizens never have to fight city hall because there is not much city hall to fight. They think that is just fine.

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