It sounds like we set a new record in Arlington for the lowest turnout in a Town Election yesterday. Just 9.11% of registered voters made it to the polls.
See election results here: www.arlingtonma.gov/town-governance/elections-voting/2015-election-information-results
The biggest congratulations this morning go to the 2,697 people that showed up and voted. There were 26,900 people in town that stayed home. My biggest disappointment is in the 3,400 or so that usually do go out and vote in Town elections but chose not to this year.
I know there wasn't much to get excited about, the election was considerably early this year, and the weather was miserable; but your town needs you to step up and do your job, even when it isn't exciting.
OK, enough of a lecture for now.
How did the exceptionally low turnout yesterday impact the results?
When we talk about the town-wide offices there were two contested races: a three-way race for two seats on the School Committee, and a head-to-head race for a seat on the Board of Assessors.
The low turnout had no impact on the outcome of those races.
For Assessor, Kevin Feeley received 64.62% of the vote compared to 35.09% for challenger Stephen Harrington.
For the School Committee, incumbent Cindy Starks received 39.70%, incumbent Jeffrey Thielman received 36.67%, and challenger Alexis Moisand received 23.12%.
What kept people at home yesterday? An earlier than usual election date may have been a factor. Possibly the early date combined with the harsh winter this year has a lot of people still in hibernation mode. Certainly the relative lack of contested races and the lousy weather were the biggest culprits.
The number of people that stayed home was so great that it is very difficult to argue that voters favoring one candidate over another stayed home in greater numbers, hence the low turnout did not impact the outcomes.
A more typical turnout of twenty-odd percent would not have changed those percentages much, if any. In order to tighten up the results at all it would be necessary for an overwhelming majority of residents that stayed home to cast their ballots differently than their neighbors that did make it out and vote.
What makes a Moisand supporter less likely to want to go outside in the bad weather than a Starks supporter? A Harrington supporter compared to a Feeley supporter?
There is the ballot question to consider. The town voted 78.41% in favor of increasing the number of liquor licenses the Board of Selectmen can grant by five. Looking at previous election results in Arlington, I think this question performed roughly 16.5% better than it typically has. It’s a tough thing to pin down, and people’s attitudes toward alcohol being served in restaurants has also shifted rapidly over the last several years, and some alcohol related questions are more directly equivalent to yesterday’s than others.
Yet again though, what makes a Moisand supporter more anti-alcohol than supporters of Starks and Thielman? Does such a difference exist in the supporters of Feeley or Harrington? Not that I’m aware of. Further, if this difference were real, it certainly wouldn’t be sufficient to change the outcome of the Assessors race, and I don’t think the outcome of the School Committee race either.
All that said, yesterday’s exceptionally low turnout may have had a real impact on Town Meeting races.
One candidate on the ballot for Town Meeting was elected yesterday with 27 votes. The difference between getting elected and not getting elected in many races came down to very, very few votes - not unusual in Town Meeting elections. However with turnout as low as it was, this person voting rather than that person could easily change the outcome.
What I think we saw in Town Meeting races was the distilled wisdom of the most informed and dedicated voters in Arlington making their decisions about who should represent them in Town Meeting.
That’s not to say that I approve of the low turnout. We need people to be more responsible than we saw yesterday.
While I believe Arlington can weather one election like this, and I don’t think the outcome would have been much different with better turnout, it is a blemish on our record of civic investment in Arlington.
Absent evidence to the contrary, I prefer to give people credit rather than blame.
ReplyDeleteSo I don't think its fair to attribute the unusually low turnout to anything other than peoples' choices, that it was not worth voting in this election.
I don't like that choice, and it is worth asking if there are ways that Arlington's government can do or be organized that would change the calculus behind the decision to stay home.
But it's not far-fetched to me that an election with little at stake, few contested races and no burning issues, sees a light turnout.
I'm more concerned that when there are real contests and real issues participation in local elections is still in the neighborhood of 20–30%.
That says to me that people have trouble making a connection between their vote and the quality of life here in Arlington.
I often find myself surprised people read anything I write, as what I write is so often based on conversations taking place only in my own head. As a result my meanings are so cryptic it's near impossible for people to understand what I'm saying.
DeleteWhen I wrote this, and chose the title "Shame vs. Blame," I was seeing some chatter that would suggest those disappointed in the outcome of Saturday's election blamed the low turnout for the results.
I suggest that turnout was actually much too low to blame low turnout on the outcome.
I do believe there is something to be ashamed about for those that chose to not cast their ballots this past Saturday. Exciting or not, we need to view our participation in these elections as a civic responsibility. The legitimacy, perceived at least, and over time real, of our government is at stake.
Even if the outcomes are forgone conclusions, we have a civic duty to show up and say "Yes, we're here, and we have the power to choose our government."
We can weather an election such as this once in a great while. We cannot afford to repeat it very often.
I expected low turnout this year. There just wasn't much on the ballot to get concerned or excited about. I was shocked though at how low it actually was.