The numbers of voters staying home continued to climb in this week’s election, as 77.7 percent of the city’s registered voters chose not to cast votes for mayor. John DeStefano, meanwhile, saw his number of votes drop for the fourth straight time.
Mayor John DeStefano (pictured at his victory party) won Tuesday’s mayoral election with 8,681 votes, or 71.1 percent of votes cast.
That constituted only 15.8 percent of the city’s 54,742 registered voters. And his total number of votes was considerably lower than in any of the previous four mayoral elections.
An analysis of returns from the past five mayoral elections shows a steady decline in the number of registered voters showing up to the polls — even as the city’s population increases.
(Warning: Statistics follow. Read with caution; a news reporter calculated them.)
Overall, 12,206 people cast votes for mayor Tuesday, representing just 22.3 percent of all registered voters. Counting people who voted for alderman but not mayor, the numbers creep up to 12,702, or 23.2 percent.
The decline has been steady. For instance, in 2001, 34.7 percent of registered voters cast ballots for mayor.
When DeStefano faced real campaigns — i.e. candidates with more than a handful of volunteers or staffers, with support and vote-pullers in at least a few neighborhoods — more people voted. Similarly, when more candidates ran for Board of Aldermen, more people voted. For instance, Jim Newton ran as an independent, on a resonant anti-corruption platform, in 1999; Republican Joel Schiavone had some money and support for his 2001 mayoral campaign. Ten non-Democrats were on aldermanic ballots citywide in 1999, 18 in 2001. By contrast, just four were this year (not counting write-in candidates).
The Numbers
Following are some of the numbers for the past five years. Note: They were drawn from final election reports that in two cases did not include a category for total number of registered voters. That explains the “N/A“s below.
Total number of people voting for mayor. 2007: 12,206. 2005: 12,193. 2003: 12,953. 2001: 18,965. 1999: 18,108.
Votes for John DeStefano. 2007: 8681. 2005: 9,199. 2003: 10,932. 2001: 14,107. 1999: 12,328.
Percent of votes cast for DeStefano. 2007: 71.1. 2005:75.4. 2003: 84.4. 2001: 74.4. 1999:68.
Percent of registered voters who voted for any mayoral candidate. 2007: 22.3. 2005:N/A. 2003: 24.7. 2001: 34.7. 1999:N/A.
One-Party Malaise?
The Green Party’s New Haven co-chair, Charles Pillsbury, attributed declining voter turnout to the city’s one-party politics. Here’s his take, from an email exchange:
“At the risk of stating the obvious, the drop in municipal voter turnout in the general elections over the last 10 years is, in my opinion, a symptom of a one-party town. As most contested races in the city occur during Democratic primaries earlier in the election cycle, informed voters who want their vote to count register as Democrats and vote in Democratic primaries. When the general election becomes nothing more than a rubber stamp of winners of earlier contests, why bother to vote in November?
“At the same time, low voter turnout traditionally favors challengers, when there are challenges. I initially was pessimistic about Allan Brison’s chances in Ward 10, when I learned that he had only identified about 350 favorable votes in a ward that traditionally turns out over 1,000 voters every election cycle. At 7:30 p.m., when the vote count was still under 700, I knew Allan had a chance to upset a strong Democratic incumbent. At the end of the day, his victory margin of 100 plus votes was more than any of us, including Allan, had expected. It was made possible, not only by Allan’s tireless and effective campaigning, but also by the unusually low voter turnout in Ward 10.
“As most election law is determined by the state, not by any city or town, I’m not sure what can be done on a local level to increase voter turnout. In most parts of the world, elections are held on Sundays or holidays, which makes it much easier for working people to vote. In the U.S., many states now allow same day/election day voter registration, which has increased voter turnout in those jurisdictions, but this again requires state approval. We live in a state that recently forced political parties to hold their primaries in August, instead of September; I don’t
think increasing voter turnout was one of the reasons for doing that.”
Post your own theories, and solutions, below for the voting decline. And if you find any math errors above, please note those too!
I already posted my theories. I will be glad to post them again - just not at the moment. As far as solutions go, I like a combination of the ideas posted by Charlie and New Haven Tea Party elsewhere.
We need to either set up a fine (a tax if you will) for people who do not register and especially those who register but do not vote.
Or, offer a tax break for registering and a fine (tax) for not voting.
This can be applied to all residents, or just those who live and own property in New Haven.
There is NO reason why "The City" shouldn't stand behind this - except the one reason, which is my theory. "The City" wants to put a tax on anything they can. Why not put a tax on one of the most important issues this town faces? It would kill two birds with one stone.
DeStefano, is low voter turnout important to you? Do you even care (I mean publicity wise)?
DeStefano, is generating enough revenue to support your spending a problem? Could you use an extra few bucks?
DeStefano, can you please give me one GOOD reason why something like this wouldn't work?