Springfield records lowest voter turnout in at least 70 years with 3.4% of people casting ballots in preliminary

SPRINGFIELD — A preliminary election broke records in a way no one wanted to see: It had the lowest vote turnout in at least 70 years.

In Tuesday's three-race election , 1,508 of the 44,407 registered voters cast ballots in the four wards where there were elections to cut the field of candidates to two. That meant a 3.4% turnout.

After the election was over in Ward 4, Incumbent Malo Brown finished first with 210 votes in the four-way race for City Council and Willie Naylor also earned a spot on November's ballot with 154 votes. In total, 476 people voted.

In Ward 6, which had three-way races for City Council and School Committee, 533 people voted. Victor Davila, the incumbent, and challenger Mary Johnson came out on top in the City Council race earning 267 and 205 ballots respectively.

In District 3 the School Committee race, which covers Wards 6 and 7, Incumbent Christopher Collins finished first with 553 and challenger Rosa Valentin finished second with 343 votes. A total of 976 people cast ballots in the two wards.

"I will redouble my efforts to get my message out and especially to try to get people to get out and vote," Collins said just after vote totals were announced. "I've been doing this since the 1960s and this has to be the worst vote I have ever seen."

Collins said one of the problems with the way the elections are scheduled. In the past, School Committee elections alternated with three members running every two years. Now all six run together every four years and the cycle does not run concurrently to the mayoral race. The mayor serves as the seventh member of the committee.

Springfield is often noted as having low turnout in elections averaging around 10% for local elections. There have been a few years, notably in 2017 and 2013 when preliminary elections in just a few wards brought out 5.3% and 5.1% of the registered voters, city records show.

"It is disappointing. We run every election with the idea that every single voter will come out," said Gladys Oyola, the city clerk who also oversees election.

In looking at 25 years of data the turnout has never been this low, she said.

It is always hard to get people to vote in preliminary elections, especially when only local races are on the ballot and there are no city-wide competitions.

But Oyola said she was still shocked by the low turnout. Even a special election that filled a vacant City Council seat in Ward 5 held in August 2022 brought out nearly 10% of the eligible voters.

The city gives voters multiple opportunities to cast ballots through early voting and voting by mail but it has not boosted turnout much, she said.

The Board of Elections is always very active before any primary or general election. It shares information on social media and sets up booths at debates and forums and other events such as fairs to inform people about the upcoming election. While it does register people to vote, its primary mission is to educate about the upcoming races so it shares sample ballots, information about different candidates and other material in Spanish, English and is increasing the use of Vietnamese materials, she said.

Each of the races also had competitive candidates, many of whom spent money to mail informational post cards, put up signs and knocked on doors. One voter said she was visited by two of the three City Council candidates in Ward 6 and Oyola said she saw a pile of pamphlets from candidates when she went to drop off a ballot to a man who was housebound.

It isn't just the City Clerk's Office which did outreach. Pioneer Valley Project, which does a lot of work on civic engagement and getting out the vote, spoke to close to 1,000 voters about the upcoming elections, focusing efforts in Ward 4 where turnout tends to be lower, said Tara Parrish, executive director of the grassroots organization.

Members went door-to-door, set up information tables at community events and did other things to share information about the elections, issues and candidates, Parrish said.

One of the problems is while City Council and School Committee are really important offices that impact residents' lives, there simply isn't a lot of awareness about them, she said.

She also said information, including the date of the election, wasn't always easy to find on the city's web page and social media pages.

Plus reaching people has changed. In the past, most people would read local newspapers, listen to the radio and watch local television and learn an election is scheduled, but that is not a constant anymore, Parrish said.

"How would a voter know about the preliminary? How do we get out information that will reach the greatest number of people?" she said. "It is our collective goal as we go door-to-door to open up every single path to voting."

Political strategist Anthony L. Cignoli, whose company is based in Springfield, said he has found all over the country politicians are learning they must rely more on artificial intelligence, data mining and other technology in campaigns.

"You have to learn how to get it on someone's phone to say here is the race and here is the candidate," he said.

But Cignoli admitted he was surprised at the 3.4% turnout. He has tracked Springfield data for 70 years and this is the lowest he has ever seen. That comes in a year when there was a strong slate of challengers who put in the work to reach voters.

"Candidates were not quiet. They spent money and did standouts and put up lawn signs," he said.

He and Paul Robbins, political consultant for Paul Robbins Associates of Springfield, agreed some of the problem has to do with the national tenor of politics.

"Overall we are finding more and more people are tuning out nationally and that in trickling down to local elections," Cignoli said.

"We are getting more and more information that people are just tuning out of politics," Robbins said.

Robbins also noted the candidates did not spend a lot of money. Few took out television, radio or newspaper ads instead focused on grassroots campaigning and they didn't hit every neighborhood.

Preliminary elections are also always difficult to get the vote out especially with them falling at different dates every year and just after Labor Day, when people are getting children back to school and work tends to get busier.

Preliminary elections often favor incumbents, especially when turnout is low. They also are challenging for first-time candidates because they have a lot to learn, which was the case for five of the seven challengers.

"No matter what learning the mechanics of a campaign is not easy," he said. "Importantly, the good ones will try again."

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