Low turnout a disappointment in Bronx special election
Depending on whom you ask, Tuesday’s special election to fill a vacant City Council seat in the South Bronx was either a great success or a resounding failure.
If you’re Rafael Salamanca, the declared winner and Councilman-elect of the 17thCouncil District, it was a great success. In a mere 45 days, he and his allies put together a successful coalition of elected officials, progressives, labor unions, community stakeholders and neighbors.
If you’re one of the five other challengers who made the ballot, it was business as usual, because the Bronx Democratic County political machine got its man. Salamanca’s rivals point to the huge money and institutional advantages he had, along with the dismally low voter turnout (4 percent). Election watchers like Jerry Skurnik of Prime New York did not expect turnout to top 3,800 voters, or 5 percent of the district’s registered voters.
Julio Pabon, the avowed anti-establishment candidate, had a disappointing third-place finish. In his 2013 primary challenge to former Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Pabon got 2,101 votes and 31 percent of the vote. Yesterday, with 96 percent of the polls reporting, Pabon got fewer than 500 votes (15 percent).
The voter anger present on the national level did not play out in the voting booths of the South Bronx. That is, unless we view not voting as a conscious opt-out decision. Was the local media fixation on Bernie versus Hillary and Donald Trump versus the Pope (and all comers) to blame?
Many local voters take pride in voting in presidential elections, then gripe when they don’t get a responsive local government. The City Council is where the rubber meets the road. Council District 17 voters know far more about Hillary, Bernie and Trump than they know about the person just elected to ensure that their garbage is picked up, police patrol their streets, firefighters put out fires, EMS save lives and that new construction includes affordable housing for low-income individuals. Voters should want to know and elect an effective council member.
As one who tried to generate greater public awareness and interest, I'm disappointed with yesterday's low turnout, because it’s even less than the 3,600 or so who voted in the February 2005 special election that brought Maria del Carmen Arroyo into office. But if we look at yesterday's turnout in terms of the 8,800 voters who have voted in every primary, general and special election since 2012, we are looking at a 37.5 percent turnout of prime voters. While still not great, it’s better than the 4 percent turnout I’m griping out. I hope residents and community stakeholders can come together to devise a broad program that generates and sustains greater voter participation for the 96 percent who prefer disengagement.
The continuing mission should be greater voter engagement and turnout in the upcoming April 19 presidential primary, June congressional and September primaries, and November general elections. That needs to change. Endless voter registration without a program of voter education and engagement will result in continued low rates of electoral participation.
Meanwhile, Salamanca has six months to become an effective and conscientious elected official, because he will have to face voters again in a fall primary. Perhaps by then more voters in that district will turn out and choose to make their desires known.
Michael Benjamin is a former Bronx state assemblyman. Follow him @SquarePegDem.