For all the money that’s poured into today’s primary campaign, voters appear largely uninterested.
As of noon today, only 9.9 percent of the eligible voters in the Republican and Democratic primaries had turned out to cast their ballots.
“It’s very light,” said Bob Badal, the city’s Democratic registrar.
At this pace, it’s unlikely that voter turnout will reach even 25 percent by the time the polls close at 8 p.m.
At the same time in last year’s mayoral election, where just 26 percent of the city’s 34,000 voters bothered to help pick the city leaders, 12 percent had voted as of noon.
In the hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary in 2007, nearly 10 percent of Democrats had voted by 10 a.m. – a much faster pace than today’s primary turnout.
Even so, only 28 percent of Democrats wound up voting in that primary, when Art Ward defeated Ellen Zoppo to claim his party’s line on the general election ballot.
At noon on Election Day in 2007, 14.9 percent of the city's registered voters had shown up to cast a ballot.
During the presidential race in 2008, 32 percent of registered voters in Bristol had trekked to the polls by noon.
At this point, the city registrar’s office can’t break down the turnout by party, but Badal said it appears that turnout is light for both Republicans and Democrats.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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