Lawrence City Commission and school board members just added six or more months to their current terms in office thanks to legislation signed by Gov. Sam Brownback on Monday.

No one asked them whether that was OK or whether they supported moving local elections to November in odd-numbered years. Some of them spoke up anyway, saying that the move didn’t make sense, but legislators weren’t listening so the change is now law.

For many years, city commissioners and school board members have been elected in April of odd-numbered years, with a primary election in March, if needed. The new law, which will go into effect on July 1, moves those elections to November in odd-numbered years with primaries in August. At least at this point, the races will remain nonpartisan and separate from state and national elections, but who knows what will happen in the future?

The law will alter elections starting in 2017. School or city officials whose terms were set to expire anytime during 2017 will have their terms extended until Jan. 1, 2018, when officials elected in November 2017 will take office. School board members, whose terms were scheduled to end on June 30, 2017, will serve an additional six months, while Lawrence city commissioners, whose terms would have ended in April 2017, will add nearly nine months to their terms.

The extended terms may not cause major problems, but there are a number of other questions about this law. Primary among those is why legislators felt it necessary to change a system that had worked well for decades. Advocates of the law say it will boost voter turnout because people are more accustomed to voting in November. That’s a questionable claim that really wasn’t supported with any data during legislative discussions.

On the down side, the new election calendar will mean that school board members now will take office in the middle of a school and budget year and that the campaign season for these elections will be twice as long. Maybe that will give voters more time to get to know the candidates and where they stand, but it remains to be seen whether the additional time will boost voter interest or turnout.

If turnout doesn’t increase, legislators may use that as a reason to take the next step of moving local elections to November of even-numbered years, combining them with state and national elections and perhaps requiring local candidates to run with a party affiliation. The bill signed Monday will change the election calendar in arguably negative ways, but making local elections partisan would change the whole tone of those elections for the worse. It’s a step that Kansas voters should vigorously oppose and make sure their legislators are listening.