By Josh Resnek
Out of a total possible 22,356 Everett registered voters that could have cast a ballot, a paltry 5,881 voters showed up at the polls or voted early before the Primary last Tuesday.
The participation rate was in the low 20th percentile meaning just about 3 out of every 4 voters failed to cast a vote.
As predicted, the vote total was lower than might be expected due to several circumstances.
The first, was no presidential race.
The second, was no mayoral race.
The third, was voter apathy connected to primary voting, and voter apathy in general when there are no big names running in national and state races or in citywide races for mayor.
The Election Office had been predicting 6500 votes, so even their studied tendency to predict voting totals within a pretty close range, came in lower than they first believed.
There were no dramatics in this Primary’s outcome for many of the candidates seeking office.
There was mostly the predictable.
In other words, those who were wishing and hoping for dramatic upsets and unusual outcomes were again, disappointed.
Over the decades of the Leader Herald covering elections, Everett has shown a tendency to distance itself from surprises in the political world when elections are held.
Incumbents have the edge, and incumbents, more or less, for better or worse, maintained their edge in this recent primary.
Within that space however, there were not so much surprises as anticipated changes.
For instance in the at-large field, two newcomers without much name recognition didn’t make it into the final cut for November.
Eleven others made the cut, including 4 incumbents and a bunch of newcomers.
Incumbent Jimmy Tri Le, who hasn’t attended meeting in over a year because of an outstanding court matter, made it into the final. His opponent Holly Garcia beat him by 2 votes.
School Committee Ward 4’s outcome featured an old and popular political name topping that ticket.
School Committee’s Ward 6 did not have incumbents running. But two of those running, Thomas Abruzzese and
Joseph D’Onofrio have either served before or their father served, respectively.
Again, there were no stunning outcomes or earth shattering surprises in the Primary last week.
However, the table has been set for an exciting November run-off.
We caution our readers, do not expect extraordinary outcomes in November.
They could happen – but they usually don’t.