Ahead of the Swampscott’s local election next month, the Town Election Review Committee told the Select Board that residents may have skipped voting in the past due to a lack of information about candidates and issues.

“There’s a need to maximize town dissemination channels for voter outreach,” said Chair Marta Sirota, suggesting the use of newsletters, social media and a “CodeRED” reminder alert. 

The committee has explored several strategies to boost civic engagement and voter participation. Ideas have included social media outreach, student volunteers on election day, robocalls, use of the town newsletter, transportation for senior center members, and expanding early voting days. The group drew on a townwide a survey, member input, public data, and existing research.

Swampscott’s local election will be held Tuesday, April 28. Residents will elect candidates to a variety of positions, from the Select Board and School Committee to Town Moderator and Town Meeting Members.

In Swampscott’s April town election last year, just over 16% of registered voters cast ballots. That was the highest local election turnout, however, since 2019.

“Local election turnout generally is much lower than the general, national election,” Shayne Spaulding, the vice chair of the Town Election Review Committee, said. “The rates are around 75% for those November presidential elections and maybe less than 25% – for some of them much less than 25% – for the local spring elections.”

The committee’s survey gathered 64 responses to reasons not to vote, of which 38.2% said one of the top reasons is because they did not have enough information about the candidates or the issues. An additional 26.4% said they were too busy, while 15.5% even admitted to not knowing there was an election. 

Less common reasons not to vote were not being interested in politics (8.2%), not feeling like their vote made a difference, difficulty in accessing child care (4.5%) and that it was difficult to find out when the election was. 

Select Board Member David Grishman noted that the lack of child care support also prevents people from participating in Town Meeting. Chair Katie Phelan added that the children could have their own civic activity “to understand this is what makes Swampscott, Swampscott.”

Voters under 30 years old in Swampscott also have the lowest turnout, with those above 65 voting the most often. 

“There’s also research of declining civic engagement among young people,” Spaulding said, noting the trend is nationwide. “We recommend that we lower the voting age in town elections to 16. When students vote with their families and when they’re young, there’s evidence that that creates civic engagement later in life.”

There are about 335 16- and 17-year-olds in Swampscott, according to Spaulding. She noted that this is a small percentage of eligible voters but that there could “be some benefits in engaging them early.”

There are a few towns in Massachusetts that have passed locally for 16- and 17-year-olds to vote locally. They are not able to vote in state or federal elections. The proposals have not been approved by the state legislature, at the time of writing. 

Going forward, the election committee suggested the need for a permanent group rather than their temporary role.

“During our work this past year, we identified many issues and ideas that require continued attention beyond a single committee term,” Sirota said. “A permanent committee could continue monitoring voter turnout trends, evaluating election practices, identifying areas for participation and developing new initiatives to develop civic participation over time.” 

Town Administrator Nick Connors and Town Clerk Kathleen Dupont will coordinate what suggested efforts can be implemented now and which may need some legal or greater townwide action.