Galvin: Voter Turnout Expected To Be Low In Boston Tuesday
BOSTON (CBS) -- Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said he doesn't expect voter turnout to be high in citywide elections Tuesday in Boston.
He said he predicts about 90,000 people in Boston will vote.
"Boston, I'm guessing and it's purely a guess because no one really knows, we're probably talking on the lower end," Galvin told reporters Monday morning.
He said a number of the City Council seats were uncontested this year, and the City Councilor at-large race wasn't as intense this election, leading to the expected lower turnout.
"In the best of circumstances, such as for instance the open seat for mayor we had four years ago, even though there were probably hundreds of thousands of persons elligible, we only had about 190,000," he continued. "It could be a little less than that, it could be a little more. We had about 58,000 in the preliminary."
There are more than 50 communities across the Commonwealth with local elections Tuesday.
Galvin did say Newton, which has an intense mayoral race, is expected to see high voter turnout.
"In Newton's case, they are going to decide whether they are going to change both the size and the representation of the city council. It seems to be a very controversial issue. They also have a number of down-ballot races, the school committee and other races, so I would tell you Newton will be pretty high," Galvin said.
Other places expected to have high turnout were Lynn, which has seen a lot of absentee ballot participation in their mayoral race; Lawrence, where Mayor Dan Rivera faces a rematch with former Mayor William Lantigua; and Framingham, which will be voting for city government for the first time after voting to become a city earlier this year.
One concern Galvin has with local elections is that people can have a tendency to go back to neighborhoods where they used to live, thinking they can still vote there.
"In state elections there is a look-back period of a few months, and that's a different set of rules," he said. "These are local elections, these are city elections--if you don't live there anymore, don't vote."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports
