With city primaries taking place today, the mayoral race will be trimmed to two by nightfall, but candidates are not feeling optimistic about voter turnout.
""It's been historic that these primaries have had lower turnout,"" said mayoral candidate Ray Allen. ""Which is very unfortunate.""
Allen said he would not know until the day after if it is going to have an effect on his chances, but he said that now is not the time to worry about it.
According to Allen, his campaign thus far has concentrated more on the issues and letting people know how to vote.
""We are going to do everything we can to get to people polls and out to vote,"" Allen said.
Megan McGrorty, campaign manager for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said the mayor is going on as if the primary were in 2003, where voter turnout reached some of the highest levels in state history.
""We've pretty much been running it as if there will be a high turnout,"" McGrorty said. ""Still, I think we are going to have higher turnout than expected.""
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said voter turnout will not be as high this year because the candidates did not do as much spending and advertising, which was the case in 2003.
He said students are going to play a key role for candidates and McGrorty agreed.
She said that in 2003 the student vote was the difference in Cieslewicz's victory.
""The student vote is very important to us,"" McGrorty said. ""[In 2003] we won by 1,200 votes, which is the student vote.""
Mayoral candidate Peter MuAoz said he has made a lot of phone calls in preparation for today.
He said the response is surprisingly upbeat and that voter turnout may be lower than in 2003 but should not be a key deciding factor.
""I was concerned about the voter turnout,"" MuAoz said. ""It may be somewhat low, but according to [phone calls made] people are very excited about the election.""
