During the run-up to the 2020 election, there was a concerted effort by fellow voters and political leaders alike to encourage the country’s youngest voters to participate in the 2020 election. The Harbor News took a look at the numbers to see if Old Saybrook’s young voters heeded the call in 2021 when the spotlight was off.

In short, they largely didn’t.

In 2020, a worldwide pandemic, explosive racial tensions, and an exceptionally divisive political rhetoric contributed to people of all ages clamoring for sweeping changes to institutions ranging from the healthcare system to policing to education.

Once again, activists took to the streets and social media to encourage young people to vote as a way to try and implement reform to the system, especially at the Black Lives Matter rallies and marches held in Old Saybrook and along the shoreline.

The 2020 election saw massive voter turnout across the country and Old Saybrook was no different with nearly 80 percent of registered voters having voted. With such substantial turnout, some were curious if that would mean a larger turnout for the municipal election in 2021.

Presidential and to some degree midterm elections get significant attention from the national and state media, however the municipal elections like the one held las month do not receive the same amount of buzz. However, those municipal elections are still important to the day-to-day lives of citizens. In fact, it’s often argued that the leaders at the local level will have more of an impact on the daily lives of residents than the president will.

For example, in Old Saybrook, one of the of the positions that was hotly contested in the 2021 election was the race for the makeup of the Police Commission, which is charged with overseeing the police department During the later months of 2020 as police reform became a nationally debated subject many young people were able to voice their opinions on the subject. In theory it would have made sense for more young people then normal to vote in Old Saybrook’s election with a local relevance to such a high-profile issue.

Per the data from the Old Saybrook Registrars of Voters, however, only 96 people aged 18 to 30 voted in Old Saybrook, a turnout of about seven percent of registered voters in that age group.

It’s possible that the lack of youth turnout in the local election can be attributed to young people being on the whole less established in their careers and living situations when compared to older people who are more likely to have longer roots in the community. For example, a 20-year-old with no kids who is not thinking of making a permanent home in Old Saybrook may not be concerned with who serves on the Board of Education in town. However, young people are the group that will face the longest-term consequences of those votes.

Whatever the reason, the 2021 numbers show that young voters are not a substantial voting bloc in municipal elections.