Galvin predicts Boston voter turn out around 30%

History is on the ballot in Boston on Tuesday with voters set to choose a woman as mayor, but the state’s top elections official expects that turnout will lag behind previous contests amid what he perceives as a lack of “intensity.”

On the eve of Election Day in 61 Massachusetts communities, Secretary of State William Galvin told reporters he estimates 135,000 ballots will be cast in Boston, where voters will decide an open mayoral race and several contested City Council seats.

If Galvin’s projection holds true, turnout among the city’s 442,000-plus registered voters would land at about 30.5%, lagging behind three of the four most recent Boston municipal elections where the mayor’s office was up for grabs.

One of the two finalists, Michelle Wu or Annissa Essaibi-George, is poised to become the first woman elected to serve as mayor in Boston’s history after Acting Mayor Kim Janey in March became the city’s first-ever female mayor.

Despite those circumstances, Galvin said he believes the contest so far has not generated enough heat to warrant a more robust turnout prediction.

“I don’t think the intensity is in this race as we’ve seen in some prior races,” Galvin said. “For whatever reason, I guess no one is terribly frightened by the prospect of either finalist becoming mayor or terribly excited. That’ll be the true measure of the turnout: how excited they are.”

A turnout rate of 30.5% would be the second-lowest in a Boston election with the mayor’s office on the ballot since 2005, the furthest back that the city’s elections website posts data.

About 35.6% of registered voters cast ballots in 2005, followed by 31.2% in 2009, 38.2% in 2013 and 27.8% in 2017.

— Chris Lisinski / State House News Service

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3mzMepl