The annual town election in Ludlow took place on March 23rd, there was only a 5% voter turnout this year.

Out of a total of 16,386 registered voters, 783 ballots were cast—a percentage even less than 5. Not to mention the almost 1,000 unregistered adults who choose not to vote that make up part of the population.

As you can imagine, this result is not a good look for Ludlow.

Though local elections have been getting increasingly lower turnouts over the past couple of years, the average for most is usually close to 20%. Compared to that, 5% is virtually nothing. 

On the outside, it seems like people in Ludlow have just stopped caring. With fewer votes, less enthusiasm, and a decreasing interest in politics, it’s easy to think the able voters of our town are completely ignoring these annual elections.

However, a closer look at the candidate options this year shows a bigger problem in our town. The term “voting” in Ludlow has become an oxymoron in and of itself; there is nothing to vote for.

Out of eleven categories for direct electees, only a single one had multiple candidate choices for voters to vote on. For the most part, there was only ever one person running for important positions in our local government at a time. 

For example, the first category to elect for was the Ludlow Select Board. In theory, there should have been multiple candidates running for this spot. However, the only person who ran was Antonio Leano Sanches. By default, he won.

The only category out of eleven that had multiple candidates to choose from was the Board of  Health. Timothy Joseph Pontaine ran against Lauren Anna Yelinek. Yelinek won—this time not by default, but because of a proper vote.

Though two options are definitely better than one, a 1/11 ratio is nothing to be proud of.

The rest of the main categories were Town Clerk, Town Moderator, Board of assessors, Housing Authority, Trustee of Hubbard Memorial Library, Planning Board, and Recreation Commission—all of which had only one option to choose from

The only other main category that had two candidates was a ¨select-two¨ option for the School Committee, where two people are needed to fulfil the role anyway. Of course, because there were only two candidates in the first place, both were elected.

The ¨Representative Town Meeting Members¨ section had a little bit more liberty—but not much.

It seems like these votes don’t even matter. Whether you submit a ballot or not, Ludlow voters know who their representatives will be.

The issue lies not so much with the voters, then, but with the meager number of people running for office. In order to keep a working democracy, citizen participation is crucial. If people aren’t showing up to represent what they believe in, someone else will. 

The election that took place in Ludlow this year was not just an election, but a show of one of the most difficult parts in upkeeping a democracy. Citizens need to be actively running for office, and voters need to be showing up to cast their decision.