Milford NH March Voting History

Several people have commented about the voter turnout at the Saturday March 18, 2017 election, so I thought that I would post the voting history of the town March elections for comparison. Shown below are the data points for each year including the number of votes cast, the number of voters on the checklist, the percentage of the checklist that voted, and the number of people that attended the town deliberative session. The average number of votes cast over the previous ten years was 1960, so the 1865 votes that were cast this year was just slightly below average. 

The number of voters on the checklist varies somewhat depending on where we are in the 10 year purge cycle, so the real voting percentage can vary. We averaged 92 voters at deliberative session over the past 10 years.

I think that changing to Saturday voting on a permanent basis would result in a higher voter turnout than is seen on Tuesday voting. The turnout this year with a Saturday vote was slightly below average, but anecdotally, I heard of a lot of people that just forgot about it since it was not a scheduled day. If it was properly scheduled in advance and well advertised, then I think that the turnout would have been much better.

Year, Votes, Checklist, Percentage, Deliberative Session Voters
2017, 1865, 11149, 16.7%, ??
2016, 2711, 9906, 26.1%, 89
2015, 2174, 9864, 22.0%, 99
2014, 1770, 9622, 18.4%, 76
2013, 1528, 9668, 15.8%, 76
2012, 1818, 8679, 20.9%, 76
2011, 2001, 10925, 18.3%, 68
2010, 2048, 10765, 19.0%, 100
2009, 1682, 10809, 15.6%, 84
2008, 1723, 10464, 16.5%, 91
2007, 2149, 10135, 21.2%, 163
2006, 1984, 10035, 18.8%, 111
2005, 2743, 10069, 27.2%, 193
2004, 2768, 8616, 32.1%, 146
2003, 2536, 8373, 30.3%, 184
2002, 3153, 7758, 40.6%, 162