In Massachusetts, the 2024 election saw the second-highest turnout among voters in the state's history. But it also represented a drop from 2020.
According to numbers released this week by the secretary of state's office, more than 3.5 million Massachusetts voters cast a ballot. That's nearly 5% fewer than the previous presidential election.
In Amherst, about 10% fewer ballots were cast, but turnout was still a robust 73%.
Town Clerk Susan Audette said some of this is because there are also fewer registered voters there.
"In 2020, you know we're a college town, we have three schools here, all the students had to go home from COVID" Audette explained. "So, when they went home, they registered to vote in their hometowns, and so our voter registration numbers dropped dramatically."
Audette said voter registration has started to bounce back, but not quite to pre-pandemic levels. The town currently had 14,704 voters registered for the election earlier this month.
In Holyoke, the decline was about 9% while in Springfield it was at 8%. Both communities added a significant amount of registered voters from 2020 to this year.
Secretary of State William Galvin said the decline in turnout in the state mirrored what was going on in other states.
“The turnout in Massachusetts appears to reflect a national trend, with a significant drop in participation in several of our cities, especially those with larger minority populations, and a slightly smaller rise in turnout in the more rural and suburban areas of the state,” Galvin said.
Only a handful of western Massachusetts communities increased turnout, including Athol, Orange and Northfield.
And in the tiny community of Monroe in western Franklin County, it too grew its turnout—by six voters. The town has 90 registered voters and 66 turned out for this year’s election
