POLL: Will Anyone Vote in the Marlborough Election?

Has voter apathy set in? Have more people decided, “it just doesn’t matter if I vote?”

Former Boston City Council President Lawrence S. DiCara, Northeastern University instructor James Sutherland, and Samuel True Adams, service specialist at Minuteman Health, delved into Boston’s voter turnout dating back to the election of 1985 in a recent article for Commonwealth Magazine.

“There has been a decline in participation in off-year city elections, even as the population has increased and even as the number of those in Boston voting for the president has also increased slightly,” they wrote, noting that voter turnout has slipped more than six percentage points from 2003 to 2011.

According to the history of Marlborough, the city, too, is following the trend of declining voter turnout. From 2007 to 2013, the percentage of voters has dipped around 13 percent, dropping the most between 2011 and 2013.

Here’s a breakdown of Marlborough’s turnout in municipal elections dating back to 2007:

• 2007: 6,298 of 18,669 registered voters, marking 33.74 percent
• 2009: 6,123 of the 20,239 registered voters cast ballots, marking 30.25 percent
• 2011: 6,002 of 20,417 registered voters, marking 29.40 percent of the voters
• 2013: 3,274 of the 21,364 registered voters, marking 15.32 percent of the voters

In this year’s preliminary municipal election, held on Oct. 6, 2,267 of the 20.703 registered voters in Marlborough cast ballots, marking 10.95 percent of the vote. Historically, few fewer turn out for preliminary elections.

In a race on Nov. 2 that will decide, among others, Marlborough’s mayor, how many residents will turn out to vote?

Will you? Take our poll below.