Voting turnout is key to a healthy democracy. High turnout often means voters are motivated and believe their vote makes a difference. Politicians will tend to be more attuned to their constituents when turnout is high. However, in the US including Connecticut, municipal elections tend to have low voter turnout and as a result local municipalities might be less accountable to their voters.
According to the CT Mirror, the voting turnout of the municipal 2023 elections in Connecticut was 33.29% – a typical municipal elections turnout. However, 63 Connecticut towns had lower turnout rates than 33% including New Britain with 26.6% turnout – a 2% decrease comparing to the 2021 municipal elections. The data also shows that a record low of 8,049 New Britain voters showed up in 2023 (as compared to 9,333 voters in 2021). In contrast turnout in New Britain state elections is on average 45% and 65% in presidential elections.
What could be done to enhance voter turnout in New Britain? One promising practice is elections consolidation meaning municipal elections is consolidated with state and presidential elections and is conducted on even years. The practice has been used in several states such as California, Arizona, Oregon, and Nevada with dramatic changes seeing increased turnout between 5% to 50% and more. In San Diego, in 2014 municipal-only elections had 290,000 voters while the 2020 consolidated election had 620,000 voters – more than twice larger turnout. Furthermore, since municipal elections tend to be overrepresented by older, middle class and white voters, consolidation studies found significant increase in voter turnout among Latinos, Blacks and Asians. Will New Britain take a bold step by consolidating voting to increase voter impact on local politics? If so, it will also benefit from saving a lot of money.
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