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Springfield's Top Election Official Looks To Boost Turnout Tuesday

WAMC

Steps are being taken in a bid to boost voter turnout Tuesday in the largest city in western Massachusetts.

Hoping to improve on the September preliminary election when just over 7-and-a-half percent of Springfield’s registered voters went to the polls, signs will be put at 35 selected intersections Tuesday that read “Vote Today” in both English and Spanish.

 Additionally, Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola-Lopez said robocalls will be placed to each household in the city on the eve of Election Day.

"Maybe having several different techniques will  improve turnout," said Oyola-Lopez.

There are contested races in Springfield for mayor and city council, but Oyola-Lopez said the campaigns haven’t generated much public excitement.

About 500 absentee ballots have been requested – 300 more than were cast in September.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.