Not many voters came out for Tuesday’s Boston election. How does it compare to other years?
Boston's preliminary municipal election on Tuesday didn't bring nearly as many voters out as the most recent election, but a significant number still made their voices heard.
About 21.8% of registered voters, or just over 93,000, cast a ballot in Tuesday's election, in which Mayor Michelle Wu topped the ticket for reelection in the Nov. 4 general election.
She faces Josh Kraft, a philanthropist and the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who received the second-highest number of votes on Tuesday.
The most recent election, by comparison, saw a total turnout of 60.44%. Generally, federal elections tend to attract more voters.
Tuesday's turnout was also below the number of voters who cast ballots in the 2021 preliminary election — the year Wu was first elected mayor. That year, 24.8% of voters cast a vote in the preliminary, followed by 32.7% in the November general election, according to historical data from the city.
However, unlike this year, in 2021, there was an open-seat race for the top office, after former Mayor Marty Walsh resigned to become U.S. Secretary of Labor in President Joe Biden's administration.
The last time an incumbent mayor ran for reelection was in 2017, when Walsh faced a challenge from four candidates, including then-City Councilor Tito Jackson, who received 29% of the vote, and Robert Cappucci, who garnered 6.7% of the preliminary vote. (Cappucci, one of the four mayoral candidates on Tuesday's ballot, earned 2.24% of the vote.)
In the 2017 preliminary election, only 56,403 voters, or 14.6% of those registered, cast a ballot. However, the turnout rose to 27.8% for the November general election, according to city data.
In this week's election, Ward 19, which includes much of Jamaica Plain and parts of Roslindale, had the highest turnout with 35.38% of registered voters, or 6,559, casting a ballot. A close second for turnout was Ward 20, which includes Roslindale and West Roxbury, where 34.75% of registered voters, or 4,362, voted.
Those two wards also had the highest turnout in the preliminary in 2021, the year Wu was elected mayor. Ward 20 had the highest percentage that year, at 42.74%, followed by Ward 19 at 37.88%.
The two wards with the lowest turnout this year were Ward 15 with 13.61% and Ward 14 with 13.9%. Ward 15 is located in Dorchester, while Ward 14 includes parts of Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan. They were second- and third-lowest, respectively, in turnout for the 2021 preliminary election, with just under 19% each.
Wu's home ward, Ward 18, saw 24.06% turnout this year, sixth-highest among the 22 wards. Kraft lives in Ward 3, which saw 21.8% turnout, putting it at eighth.
The full breakdown of voter turnout by ward is below.
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