Residents: Low Turnout Signals Things Are Good In Peabody

PEABODY, MA -- Throughout history, whenever a dictatorship has been replaced by a democracy, the first election features voter turnout at or within a few decimal points of 100%. The belief is that given a chance to change a bad situation, voter turnout will be high. By that logic, the low voter turnout in Tuesday's municipal election should signal that residents are pretty happy with the way things are going in Peabody.

"Personally, I like a boring election. It means things are going well," Norma Jean Tran told Peabody Patch in a Facebook post.

In a city with close to 36,000 registered voters, just 8,901 took the time to vote Tuesday. In Ward 3's first precinct, just 241 voted -- an average of about 19 voters per hour for the 13 hours polls were open. Even in the busiest precinct, just 691 voters made it to the polls.

"No excuse acceptable for not voting....no matter who is on the ballot," Debbie Brokvist said. "We are privileged to be able to vote."

On Wednesday, we asked Peabody residents on Facebook for their thoughts on the election and whether or not the low turnout was a cause for concern. And, despite Brokvist's statement, we heard a few excuses. Yes, we know the mayor was running unopposed for reelection and there were no state or federal races to draw more voters to the polls. But didn't Peabody voters listen to their middle school civics teacher, who talked about the privilege and responsibility of voting in a democracy?

"In Peabody, anyway, everything is going very well," Craig Caplan said, noting it was a minor election and the challengers in contested races weren't as well known as the incumbents. "Peabody is doing well with the new Higgins [school], major improvements downtown, Crystal Lake project, property values going up and new businesses moving in."

Diane Marchese agreed with Caplan, but still would have liked to have had some more choices when she cast her vote Tuesday,

"Fortunately things are going very well in Peabody," she said. "That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to have some newcomers, some younger blood with new ideas."

There was a lot of support in the comments for Mayor Edward Bettencourt Jr., but his that support was not universal. Steve Griffin didn't vote Tuesday but said he would have if someone had run against Bettencourt.

"If someone were running against the mayor then maybe I’d have come out. I’d probably vote him out for the traffic disaster in downtown," Griffin said.

Indeed, dull election or not, this is politics, and in politics there are always complaints and cynicism. For every comment about the good things happening in Peabody, we saw complaints: 12 straight annual increases in property taxes, worsening downtown traffic and the cost of statue relocation. Yes, we said statue relocation.

"How much money have the tax payers spent to move that statue in downtown over the years?" Gordon Wasson wrote. "Seriously, pick a spot not within the traffic flow and mandate that the thing STAYS PUT."

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).