The “unofficial” results are in. Gabriel Gomez lost his bid for U.S. Senator representing MA last night. But he was the clear winner in Southborough.
Republican candidate Gomez, won 56% of the vote across all three precincts. With more residents registered as Democrat (23%) than Republican (17%), Gomez must have won over many of the 59% of voters unenrolled.
That doesn’t necessarily represent Southborough resident’s opinions of the candidates. With only 33% of registered voters participating, it’s hard to judge.
Turnout was predicted to be a record low throughout the state for this election. In the end, Southborough turnout may again be higher than the state average.
Still, this means that 2/3 of registered voters didn’t participate in yesterday’s election.
Compare that to the 62% turnout for the 2010 special election that put Scott Brown in office. (The 2012 Senate race drew an even larger turnout of 83%, but was also a Presidential election.)
When we had record low turnout for the town elections, people blamed the uncontested candidates and minor influence of local government.
This was a highly contested race for a national senate seat. So why the low turnout?
Share your reasons if you, like most, didn’t vote yesterday.
(photo by Susan Fitzgerald)
