On November 5, 2019, millions of Americans headed to the polls to vote for their local government officials. This year in Stamford, elections were held for the 14th District, the Board of Finance, and the Board of Education (BOE).
For the BOE, three Democrats and one Republican won a spot on the board. Democrats Jennie Burke with 8,146 votes and Daniel Dauplaise with 7,650 votes received the highest amount of votes out of any of the candidates, according to patch.com. Democratic candidate Fritz Cherry did not earn a spot on the BOE despite receiving more votes than any of the Republican candidates at 7,428 votes. This is due to the BOE’s rule that no more than six of the nine members may belong to the same political party in order to balance the viewpoints on the BOE, according to The Stamford Advocate. Therefore, Republican candidate Nicola Tarzia won a spot on the Board of Education with 5,180 votes.
Democratic candidate Jack Bryant won against Republican candidate Eva Maldonado to fill a one year spot on the BOE. Bryant received 8,231 votes and Maldonado received 5,432 votes.
For the Board of Finance, Democratic candidates Mary Lou Rinaldi, Geoff Alswanger, and David Kooris won over Republican candidates Chris Woodside, Andrew Krill, and Fritz Blau. Rinaldi received 9,336 votes, Alswanger received 8,917 votes, Kooris received 8,366 votes, Woodside received 4,262 votes, Krill received 4,195 votes, and Blau received 4,159 votes. According to The Stamford Advocate, the voter turnout resulted in around 20 percent with most voting for Democratic candidates in Stamford. Connecticut has been a state that has been leaning Democratically since the 1970s.
Although the voter turnout was not high this year, city officials said that the voter turnout was normal for a local election. Just after the polls closed on Tuesday night at 8:00 PM, the Democratic Registrar of Voters Ron Malloy stated that the voter turnout was 19.5 percent, which meant that 14,000 out of Stamford’s 71,000 registered voters showed up to vote. Malloy said that the voter turnout this year was similar to the voter turnout in the last local election in 2015 which was 19.2 percent, a fraction of a difference from this year.
The tightest race was within the election for the 14th District, where two candidates faced off in the race to be on the Board of Representatives. Democrat Jeff Curtis defeated incumbent Republican candidate Anthony Spadaccini by a vote of 463 to 361 according to Stamford’s Registrar of Voters.
Poll worker Miriam Hertz stated that there was a higher turnout of voters because people are getting ready to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election. David Avery, an election official, stated that the voter turnout this year was normal as well.
