Low turnout expected for Attleboro City Council at-large special election

They are Jonathan Tavares, Timothy Barone and Laurie Sawyer. That’s the order in which they appear on the ballot.

It won’t take long to vote when there is only one circle to fill in for one candidate.

The candidates’ positions were recounted in Tuesday’s paper. And while that might drive some to the polls, the lines are not expected to be long.

In and out in a flash.

During a November election when there’s a contested mayoral race around 30% of eligible voters show up.

In addition there are usually contested council races that draw voters and there are school board races as well.

For reference, state elections draw about 50% and presidential elections draw about 70%.

In February’s special election for mayor only about 16% showed up at the polls which means that about 84% of the registered voters didn’t care who was elected.

Since this is a council race it’s likely that even fewer voters will come out — and they will be the hard core supporters of the three candidates.

So with no historical record of special elections it’s hard to predict the numbers, but they are expected to be low.

Saturday was the last day to register to vote for the June 6 balloting.

Leslie Veiga, office manager and election administrator, staffed the office alone and she was lonely from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Nobody showed up to do a last-minute registration.

But since the last special election the numbers have gone up overall by 537 voters.

That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s interest in the election, it just means that people got registered through the Registry of Motor Vehicles or other ways.

All told there are 33,469 registered voters in Attleboro.

That’s highest number ever, which will decrease the percentage of the overall vote on Tuesday.

So far there have been 627 mail-in ballots sent to voters and 393, or 62%, have been returned.

Officials anxiously await the final 234.

There have been 12 absentee ballots cast.

Tuesday at 5 p.m. was the last day to request a mail-in.

So if you are reading this on Wednesday it’s too late, but it’s not too late to mail in what you have.

For the mayoral special election the number of mail-in ballots requested was 690 and the number returned was 612, or 88%.

The final 78 never arrived or arrived too late.

There were 86 absentee ballots cast in the mayoral.

And finally the campaign finance reports were due on Tuesday.

Those who raise and spend the most don’t always win so nothing can be surmised from those numbers.

Tavares raised a total of $8,076 during the latest period.

He spent $7,164 and he has $4,501 in liabilities outstanding.

Tavares got a $150 contribution from former congressional candidate and former city councilor Julie Hall and a $100 donation from Madeleine McNielly, the former director of the council on aging.

And he got $250 from former councilor Duff White.

Tavares loaned himself $4,500.

Barone had not submitted his finance report by 3 p.m. when a reporter picked them up at the election office.

Sawyer raised $5,327 and spent $4,304. She has $300 in outstanding liabilities.

She got a $50 donation from Mayor Cathleen DeSimone and two $500 contributions from former mayor Paul Heroux.