Less Than 2,000 Votes Expected Today

Talk to anyone working the polls today and they'll tell you two things: turnout for Merrimack's election has been very low so far and they expected turnout to be low.

Chalk it up to a pretty tame ballot and only one contested race for school board.

“It's higher than I thought it would be,” Assistant Moderator Brian McCarthy. “ I wasn't sure if people even knew there was an election today.”

Truly, it's been quiet lead up. Two deliberative sessions – one each for the school and town ballots – were each conducted in less than an hour. No unexpected or last minute amendments were made to articles at the meetings. And with just the one contested race, campaign signs that so often line the roads in the weeks leading up to an election have been pretty sparse.

Moderator Lynn Christensen said around 1:30 that she's been saying all along she didn't expect more than 2,000 ballots cast.

As of 2 p.m., it looks like she will be right, with 990 ballots fed into the ballot collection machines.

Is the low turnout alarming? Maybe, as it represents a lower interest in town issues and expenses. But is it unusual? No.

In March, when dozens of communities held their annual elections around New Hampshire it was much of the same. In Bedford, 19 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the town and school election. In Exeter, it was 17 percent and the numbers were similar around much of New Hampshire.

In Merrimack, over the last 11 years the numbers have hovered around 3,000 voters, with the exception of 2005, when around 8,400 ballots were cast and 2006 with around 6,700. Those were big issue years, Christensen said. One year was the middle school vote, the other pertained to zoning law changes that would ultimately make it possible for the Merrimack Premium Outlets to be built years later.

Last year, with a contest for town council and school board, but no issues that really sparked passion one way or another on the ballot, a total of 2,510 ballots were counted.

“When it gets really, really heavy, it's because of an issue,” Christensen said. “When it's just a little busier, it's a (candidate) race.”

Outside the polls, Shannon Barnes, Gary Krupp and Chris Ortega were joined, signs waving in the wind, by Carol Lang who was running a write-in campaign for a seat on the school budget committee.

All agreed with the election staff inside, turnout was very low, perhaps surprisingly low, but not completely unexpected.

“I knew it would be low,” Ortega said, “But not this low.”

When Barnes disappeared for a few minutes around 1:15 she came outside with an update – 879 votes cast.

Though only moderately more controversial than the town ballot – which consists of the budget, five collective bargaining agreements and a minor charter amendment – the school ballot has the contested school board race, the Merrimack Teachers Association bargaining agreement and a $1.5 million building project for a new central office that would house the superintendent's and special services offices.

How the turnout will affect those items is really unpredictable. Christensen said she thinks the new building will pass by majority, but wasn't sure if it would receive the 60 percent vote needed to pass the bond.

“What does that mean? The low turnout? I don't know,” Krupp said. “I guess we'll find out at 7 or 8 p.m. tonight.”

There is still plenty of time left to cast a ballot today. The polls are open at James Mastricola Upper Elementary School until 7 p.m.

Patch will bring you election results as they are announced tonight.