June 6, 1990. “Doc” Emma Brown finds a strange woman at her door who says she’s a time traveler.
“Then tell me, Future Girl, who’s president of the United States in 2020?”
Jennifer winces and gives out a Sam Beckett-esque “Oh, boy.”
Let’s talk about the Hill Valley mayoral election. As we see in Back to the Future, the incumbents are running for re-election in 1985 and 1955. (This component, aside from the 2015 World Series, is really the only element placing the first movie-and-a-third in fall, since there are no Halloween decorations anywhere.) Election Day 1955 was Nov. 7, the week Marty was there, and Election Day 1985 was Nov. 5, 11 days after the weekend the trilogy took place.
City elections in odd-numbered years are very common. What’s less common is having those elections not on a four-year cycle. This means that Hill Valley’s mayor probably serves a two-year or six-year term. Three is a possibility, but an odd one.
Until recently, Iowa had three-year election cycles for school board, but then combined them with city elections due to low turnout. But it would be weird if someone drove around in a car with a loudspeaker promoting a school board candidate.