Thirty-Somethings Least Represented In Budget Vote

By John Voket

Representatives of the townwide PTA Council and members of the Citizens For Newtown advocacy group shared a dual disappointment last week when the municipal budget referendum failed by 53 votes. The two groups, who share some common members and worked in concert to encourage voter turnout, pointed out that if just one additional parent per classroom had come out and voted Yes, the budget would have likely passed.

But members of those groups who spoke with The Bee earlier this week were even more upset when the final tallies revealed only 22 percent of eligible registered voters bothered to come out to the polls. Sarah Beier, president of the PTAC and co-chair of CFN expected somewhat higher numbers.

“We know from recent past experience that we can get 30 or 40 percent of the voters out during general elections,” Ms Beier said. “It wouldn’t be as frustrating if 80 percent of the voters came out and the budget was defeated, because it would show that the privilege to vote on their own town budget matters.”

The number of no-shows is even more significant when one considers the budget apathy among eligible taxpayers who are not registered to vote, although according to Town Clerk Cynthia Simon, that group, which may number in the thousands, rarely makes any significant showing against residents who have officially registered and tend to participate in much greater numbers during presidential election cycles.

According to the PTAC/CFN data, only 30 or 40 unregistered taxpayers participated in the first budget referendum.

But while the PTA Council and members of CFN continued to advocate to taxpayers and eligible voters to turn out for the next referendum, set for next Tuesday, May 9, they also gathered voting data and crunched numbers to see which local demographics were most and least motivated to vote. Mary Ann Jacob, who chairs the PTA Council’s budget subcommittee, said they were shocked at the low turnout considering what was at stake, and the extensive amount of advertising that was done preceding the referendum.

“Besides weekly stories in The Bee on all the deliberations leading up to the vote, we sent out 2,400 mailers, an email blast, flyers in every public school student’s backpack and more to every local child care center and preschool. We had reminders on the local cable access channel, and a lot of feedback as we made reminder calls with people telling us that they were barraged with messages,” Ms Jacob said. “We also put out a number of lawn signs, many of which were stolen the week before the vote.”

The PTAC and CFN analysis shows several expected trends as well as some breakdowns by local geographic location, voting among parents of school-age children, and the lopsided statistic of how many eligible male spouses failed to vote, even though the females in their household made it to the polls.

“The single highest demographic voting remains those over age 60,” Ms Jacob said. “And that group was evenly split, which proved in most cases, it was couples who came to the polls together.”

According to the PTAC/CFN report, 1,029 voters over age 60 turned out, with a virtual split of 512 males and 512 females. Another 20 percent of voters fell between the ages of 50 and 59.

The report indicated residents of Sandy Hook were significantly more predisposed to vote on the budget, with 1,455 of the 6,388 eligible voters in that zip code responding versus 1,969 of the 9,820 eligible voters across the rest of the community.

Cluster communities including trailer parks, convalescent homes, and the public/senior housing complex failed to provide any relevant numbers.

“Ashlar of Newtown and Lockwood Lodge had a zero turnout, and Nunnawauk Meadows, which has hundreds of residents, only provided five voters,” Ms Jacob said. “This may mean we’re not getting the message out there, or making a strong enough plea for absentee participation among people who cannot, or who find it difficult to get transportation to the polls.”

Ms Beier said the data showed as the groups of voters became younger, fewer and fewer males were represented. She pointed to a related statistic showing substantially fewer eligible men came out from households where women voted.

“Looking at parents of children in Sandy Hook School, we see that 308 of the 687 eligible voters came out. But the ratio of women to men was 193 to 115,” she said. “This trend was similar across the community, which means if all husbands of wives who voted made it to the polls as well, there would have been a 25 percent increase in the turnout.”

Ms Jacob said that in the two weeks between budget referendums, both the PTAC and CFN was working to increase their advocacy in areas where they were more likely to target men, including at local sporting events.

Overall, the report concludes that among the 3,425 voters townwide, the gender breakdown is 1,933 female and 1,492 males. About 52 percent of voters were below age 50.

The Under 40 demographic represented the biggest gap between males and females with a total of 478 votes distributed among 313 women and just 165 men.

“Under 30 it’s back to being like the older people with exactly 50/50 breakdowns,” Ms Jacob said. In that group of 62 voters, 31 women and 31 men cast referendum votes.

“This is interesting because the younger folks tend to vote more like the over 60 group — very even — supporting what we believe is the resurgence of interest in that generation. Yet, the under 40 group is the biggest gap of all the age groups,” Ms Jacob said.

“Of the 5,311 eligible voters of school age children that we analyzed, the voter turnout was 29.5 percent,” Ms Beier continued. “Also on average the gender breakdown of these voters is 60 percent female and 40 percent male.”

The analysis also included a range of 45 percent trending down to 23 percent among eligible voters who turned out on April 25, depending on the age of their children. Higher voter turnout is evident for parents of elementary age children than for parents of high school age children.

Two factors of concern to the CFN/PTAC contingent are the possibility that the referendum failure will negatively impact the town’s bond rating and the opportunity to vote on budgets could disappear.

Following the failure of the Monroe budget vote last month, Moody’s bond rating service downgraded Monroe’s rating and put the municipality on a watch list. Ms Beier also noted that in communities where the budget referendum continues to draw fewer people making these multimillion dollar decisions for the masses, the voting privilege is sometimes eventually lost.

“Right now almost every Newtown citizen can have a say on the budget, but that opportunity could be taken away if they don’t use it,” she said.

There is also the matter of cost when mounting back-to-back referendums. Last Monday, the Board of Selectmen approved another $7,200 appropriation for next Tuesday’s second budget vote. First Selectman Herb Rosenthal pointed out that $7,200 might not sound like a lot of money.

“But,” as the first selectman said, “when you look at the turnout, the last referendum cost all our taxpayers two dollars per vote cast.”