Municipal elections in Bristol have low turnout

Posted By: Jack Krampitz November 6, 2023

The total turnout in Bristol’s municipal elections has historically been incredibly low in statistics provided by the state and Bristol’s Registrar of Voters office.

According to data available on the Registrar’s site, the most recent election reported on was in 2019. In that year, Bristol had 35,678 eligible voters. And of the possible total, only 11,916 votes were counted. That brings the city’s turnout rate to 33 percent.

In the State of Connecticut Secretary of State site, the results of the 2019 and 2021 elections show similar totals. In 2019, Ellen Zoppo Sassu defeated Dante Tagariello, 6,879 to 5,032. Again, that amounted to 33 percent of the registered voters who showed up at the polls.

In 2021, Jeff Caggiano defeated Zoppo-Sassu, 6,917 to 6,324. The total vote was 13,241, which was an increase of 1,330 voters over the ‘19 election.

But even with that increase, the ‘21 election would probably show a turnout rate of 37-38 percent if the registered voter figure remained steady in the 35,000-36,000 range.

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