Milford NH Voting Results March 9, 2021

 

These are the results for the March 9, 2021 elections for Milford NH. There were 12,759 names on the checklist at the beginning of the day, 20 names were added during the day, yielding 12,779 names at the end of the day. There were 2194 ballots cast for a turnout of 17.2%.

 

School Ballot:

 

School Board, 3-year term (all write-ins)

Nathaniel "Nate" Wheeler 416 elected

Kevin St. Onge 347

Steve Martin 138

 

School Board, 1-year term

Michael McLean 1420 elected

 

Question 1: Operating Budget $43,970,972, Default Budget $44,007,03

1464 yes passed

645 no

 

Question 2 MESSA Contract

1199 yes passed

938 no

 

Question 3 $195,00 to Maintenance Expendable Trust

1229 yes passed

912 no

 

Question 4 $150,000 to Special Education Expendable Trust

1018 yes failed

1124 no

 

Question 5 Authorization to retain year-end unassigned funds

1501 yes passed

639 no

 

Town Ballot

 

Board of Selectmen, 3-year term, 2 positions

1265 Gary Daniels elected

1217 Paul Dargie elected

1097 Michael Thornton

 

Cemetary Trustee, 3-year term

809 Jay Duffy elected

745 Mary Dickson

304 Daniel Sadkowski

 

Library Trustee, 3-year term, 3 positions

1593 Kathryn Parenti elected

1447 Jennifer O'Brien-Traficante elected

1373 Janet Hromjak elected

 

Library Trustee, 1-year term

1751 John Yule elected

 

Trustees of the Trust Funds, 3-year term

1802 Richard Mossey elected

 

Water-Wastewater Commissioner

1399 Kris Jensen elected

441 Ryan Provins

 

Article 2

 

Ballot Vote #1, Mobile Food Vendor ordinances

1686 yes passed

443 no

 

Ballot Vote # 2, Side and Rear lot setbacks for small structures changed from 6 feet to 15 feet.

1145 yes passed

983 no

 

Warrant Article # 3: First Responders Communications Network $2,400,000 ($1,700,000 bond) (60% vote needed to pass)

974 yes 44.9% failed

1197 no 55.1%

 

4 Sewer Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) Secondary Clarifiers Replacement Mechanisms $1,459,000 Bond (60% vote needed to pass)

1386 yes 65.5% passed

729 no 34.5%

 

5 Wadleigh Library HVAC/Electrical Repair $1,290,000 ($995,000 bond) (60% vote needed to pass)

1083 yes 50.0% failed

1085 no 50.0%

 

6 Town Operating Budget $15,664,508 Default Budget $15,407,826

1160 yes passed

998 no

 

7 1368 Wastewater Department Operating Budget $2,288,406 Default Budget 2,218,206

1368 yes passed

753 no

 

8 Water Department Operating Budget $1,589,652 Default Budget 1,548,984

1351 yes passed

763 no

 

9 Reconstruction of Town Roads $400,000

1066 yes failed

1095 no

 

10 Fire Rescue Truck #1 Replacement 7-Year Lease Purchase $689,700 (60% vote needed to pass due to use of $100,000 capital reserve funding)

1194 yes 55.3% failed

966 no 44.7%

 

11 Wadleigh Library Maintenance and Upkeep Capital Reserve $50,000

1010 yes failed

1160 no

 

12 Public Works 6-Wheel Snow Plow Unit 5-year Lease/Purchase$180,000 $42,530 annual payment with fiscal funding clause

1097 yes passed

1070 no

 

13 Social Services $40,000

1509 yes passed

317 no

 

14 Information Technology Infrastructure Capital Reserve $40,000

1098 yes passes

1032 no

 

15 Non-Emergency Community Transportation Bus Services $32,000

1544 yes passed

602 no

 

16 Public Works Wheel Bucket Loader Loader Purchase $146,118 with $120,000 coming from Capital Reserves, net purchase price $26,118

1135 yes passed

996 no

 

17 Fire Apparatus Replacement Capital Reserve $25,000

991 yes failed

1139 no

 

18 Keyes Park Expansion Committee Project Capital Reserve $25,000

992 yes failed

1149 no

 

19 Ambulance Department Portable Radio Replacement from the Public Safety Communication Equipment Replacement Capital Reserve $13,927

1640 yes passed

506 no

 

20 Summer Band Concerts Support $9,000

1353 Yes passed

799 no

 

21 Memorial, Veterans & Labor Day Parades and Recognition Support $6,500

1571 yes passed

600 no

 

22 Property Tax Exemption for the Blind

1584 yes passed

566 no

 

23 Granite Town Rail Trail Revolving Fund

1662 yes passed

488 no

 

24 Nashua Street Pedestrian Safety and Sidewalk Improvement Project $871,924, State Pays $697,539 Town Pays $174,385

895 yes failed

1268 no

 

25 Osgood Road, Melendy Road, and Armory Road Pedestrian Safety Sidewalk and Bicycle Lane Project $797,872 State Pays $638,298 Town Pays $159,574

848 yes failed

1320 no

Milford NH Annual Town Voting History

 

This is a comparison of voter turnout for the March elections in Milford. The actual yearly totals for the years 2002 to 2021 are shown below.

* We had 2194 voters at the March election in 2021. This is slightly below the 2355 that we averaged in the past five years, and slightly above the 2107 that we averaged in the past ten years, so all in all, it was a fairly typical turnout. Last year's turnout of 3153 was an extreme outlier in that it was the highest turnout since 2002, so comparing this year to only the results for last year is not a good comparison.

* The voter checklist is purged every ten years, and this year is scheduled to be a purge year. The supervisors of the checklist normally maintenance the checklist each year following specific procedures. They can't arbitrarily remove names from the checklist; they have to have a specific reason to do so. There are legal situations where a name on the checklist is for someone that is no longer eligible to be on the checklist (i.e. phantom names), and the decennial purge eliminates these phantom names. An example of phantom names would be for people that lived in Milford but died somewhere else and their death did not get legally fed back to the Supervisors of the checklist. Another example would be for someone that lived in Milford, then moved somewhere else and their move out of town did not get legally fed back to the supervisors of the checklist. The purge process tries to identify the names that really do not belong on the checklist and then removes them.

The checklist purge occurs in years that end in a "1", so an example of a purge reduction is the change in the checklist counts from 2011 to 2012. There were 10,925 names in 2011, and this was reduced to 8,679 in 2012, which is a reduction of 2,246 names or 21.6%. If we have the same percentage reduction in the coming year's purge, then the checklist will drop 2,706 to 10,073 at the end of next year's voting session.

In 2021, the voter turnout percentage was 17.2%, below both the 20.8% that we averaged in the past five years, and the 19.9% that we averaged in the past 10 years. As the number of phantom names on the checklist steadily climbs during the ten years between purges, then the voter turnout percentage slowly drops as the turnout is being compared to higher and higher numbers. As this is the last year in the cycle, then the effects of this process are most extreme for this year. So, if you assume that there are 2,500 phantom voters on the checklist at this time, then the real voter turnout percentage this year would be (2194 / 10,279) or 21.3%. This is still a very low number as compared to presidential elections, but it is better than the 17.2% that is what is reported.

* There were 72 attendees at this year's deliberative session, which is less than both the five-year average of 97 and the ten-year average of 88. It is likely that concerns about covid-19 caused perhaps 20 to 25 people to not attend this year. That is unfortunate, but it is my opinion that holding the deliberative session at the regular time was a better choice than the two alternatives that were available, which were to have a zoom meeting where the voters did not have the opportunity to actually vote, or to delay the session to perhaps May which would have delayed the implementation of the votes.

These are the actuals for the years 2002 to 2021:

Year, Votes, Checklist, Percentage, Deliberative Session Voters

2021, 2194, 12,779, 17.2%,  72
2020, 3153, 11,946, 25.4%,  92
2019, 2127, 11,501, 18.5%, 121
2018, 1919, 11,157, 17.2%, 100
2017, 1865, 11,149, 16.7%,  84
2016, 2711,  9,906, 26.1%,  89
2015, 2174,  9,864, 22.0%,  99
2014, 1770,  9,622, 18.4%,  76
2013, 1528,  9,668, 15.8%,  76
2012, 1818,  8,679, 20.9%,  76
2011, 2001, 10,925, 18.3%,  68
2010, 2048, 10,765, 19.0%, 100
2009, 1682, 10,809, 15.6%,  84
2008, 1723, 10,464, 16.5%,  91
2007, 2149, 10,135, 21.2%, 163
2006, 1984, 10,035, 18.8%, 111
2005, 2743, 10,069, 27.2%, 193
2004, 2768,  8,616, 32.1%, 146
2003, 2536,  8,373, 30.3%, 184
2002, 3153,  7,758, 40.6%, 162