Western Mass has a reputation for being politically active, but at least in terms of voting, some communities are more engaged than others.
An analysis of city and town voter turnout rates in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties for the 2012 presidential election revealed towns where nearly 90 percent of registered voters made it to the polls and others where the turnout rate was closer to 60 percent.
How Votey Is Your Town?
Using the per-community registered voter data from the state Department of Revenue, and the per-municipality vote totals for the last presidential election (2012), the Advocate figured out how engaged voters are in every town in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties. So, do your neighbors get out the vote in November or stay home and complain about those dang politicians?
Visit the Massachusetts Secretary of State to find out where you can vote in the November presidential election.
Here’s a list of the five towns with the worst and best voter turnout rates in the tri-county area.
Best Voter Turnout Rates in 2012
Pelham 87%
Shutesbury 86%
Williamsburg 85%
Westhampton 85%
Heath 84%
Worst Voter Turnout Rates in 2012
Springfield 57%
Holyoke 64%
Chicopee 65%
Ware 67%
Amherst 67%
What drives people to the polls — or perhaps more important, what keeps them from voting — varies. In Western Mass, though, many people who try to explain the low voter turnouts of the area’s larger cities point to a lack of political engagement among immigrants — a segment of the population that could be influential in this year’s presidential election, according to early trends. In particular, The New York Times and other metropolitan papers have reported a spike in immigrants registering to become citizens so that they can participate in the November election. According to the Times, almost 12 million immigrants living in the U.S. legally have yet to become citizens and obtain the right to vote.
Gladys Oyola, Springfield’s election commissioner and deputy city clerk, offered some personal insight into the reasons behind Springfield’s modest turnout. She believes a lot of people register to vote as part of the required paperwork to gain a certificate of residence, a necessary step toward accessing state services such as transitional assistance and MassHealth.
“What we see on a daily basis is individuals who come into the office and say ‘We were told this is the office where I can get a letter of residence if I register to vote,’” Oyola said in an email to the Advocate. “As a part of the registration process, the office staff does ask if the constituent plans on voting and provides information on polling locations and election dates. On average, 8 out of 10 people who register say that the only reason they are registering in person is to establish residency and that they don’t plan on voting.”
Mohammed Najeeb is familiar with many of the reasons new Americans have for not engaging in the political process. He came to Western Mass from Iraq on a special immigrant visa in 2009 during the Iraq war. He became a U.S. citizen in 2015 and describes himself as an active voter. He says that in his experience, the majority of new Americans don’t turn out to the polls for the same reasons as many natural-born Americans.
“It’s not because they’re not interested or they don’t think it’s a civic duty to do their part as Americans,” he said. “But there are barriers, and for them these barriers are not knowing the political structure of the country.”
Many recent immigrants, he said, are too busy trying to build their new lives and cope with the day-to-day challenges of life in a new country to learn the complexities of the American political system. Even after they become citizens, many still feel like they don’t completely understand the system. For some, the democratic system is entirely new.
“My fellow immigrants and new Americans, they all know that their vote counts and their vote is important, but to them, giving it to the right person or party is what’s important, so for now they do need a lot of educating on where these parties stand on various issues,” he said.
Calvin Feliciano, deputy political director for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 509, has a unique view on the situation. He canvasses in Springfield neighborhoods trying to get people, many of whom are immigrants, to turn out on election day. He says that he sees a lack of awareness about when and where to vote.
“When you’re working 50 hours a week and it’s still not enough to make [ends] meet and you’ve got to come home and find a way to get dinner for the kids … people are just not thinking about voting in a local election.”
Immigration status is not necessarily so big a determining factor in whether someone will vote, said Tim Vercellotti, the director of the Western New England University Polling Institute, which researches local, state, and regional public policy issues. He said that the low turnout could be chalked up to disparate levels of education and poverty among the population.
“Turnout typically is highly correlated with education and income,” Vercellotti wrote in an email. “Political scientists believe that as individuals’ levels of education and income increase, so too does their sense of having a stake in the outcome of an election. That sense of self-interest gives voters a reason to follow politics and participate.”
In 2014, Massachusetts election laws were reformed to include early voting, online voter registration, post-election audits of voting machines, and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds. But more can be done. The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, MASSPIRG, has been active in trying to increase voter turnout for years. Samantha Gibb, an organizing director with MASSPIRG Students, said the ways the nonprofit is seeking to get more people to the polls include automatic voter registration. It may be surprising to see Amherst — the town where “only the H is silent” — make it onto the list of local towns with the worst voter turnout rates, but fewer people at the polls is par for the college community course. Amherst hosts the state flagship university and two private colleges, and the town has the highest poverty rate in Western Mass to boot. Gibb says that in order to engage with voters of college age and younger, registration drives need to meet them in their native environment. “Texting especially with the young generation has a huge impact on the likelihood of people turning out,” Gibb said. “It’s within the realm of their everyday experience.”
Peter Vancini can be contacted at pvancini@valleyadvocate.com.
