Understandably, there has much discussion lately in the news and on social media regarding the upcoming presidential election. This is not surprising given both the stakes in this year's election but also given the candidates, Democratic nominee Secretary Hillary Clinton and Republic nominee Donald Trump. Further, presidential elections in general seem to garner more interest that municipal or state elections. In Lynn, this is certainly the case. Below is voter turnout in the city over the last eight years.
2008 and 2012 were both presidential election years and saw Lynn's highest voter participation rates. The lowest turnout were in municipal election years with no mayoral race (2011 and 2015. In last year's municipal election, voter turnout was highest in Ward One at 32.7% and lowest in Ward Six at 14.4%. Surrounding cities/towns saw similar patterns with Chelsea seeing a 60.19% voter turnout rate in 2012 and then 15.63% and 20.54% in the 2013 and 2015 municipal elections respectively. Last year's municipal election in Revere saw a 40.73% voter turnout compared to 88.43% in the last gubernatorial race. From this it seems that overall voters are much more attuned to or willing to vote in state and national elections compared to their very local city elections.
Sources:
- Chelsea City Clerk - Election Results
- Lynn City Clerk - Election Results Archive
- Revere Election Commission - Election Results
