SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Tuesday night in Springfield, five candidates running for mayor has been narrowed down to just two.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, the longest serving mayor in the history of Springfield, having been elected in 2007, is moving on to the November election with Justin Hurst joining him.
Tuesday night they faced challenges from three other candidates, including, Orlando Ramos, who received 14 percent of the vote, City Counciler-At-Large Jesse Lederman with under 10 percent, and therapist Dr. David Ciampi with about one percent of the vote.
22News spoke to voters on Tuesday and said that the high candidate counts are a reason they came out, but most said that they wouldn’t miss it anyway.
‘I mean I usually vote for all, it doesn’t matter if it is preliminary. I’m just out here doing my American duty. My patriotic duty,” said Mel Isaia, a Springfield Ward six voter.
Four years ago, Springfield ran a similar preliminary election, with a race for mayor, council at large, and one ward, just 7,000 of 97,000 registered voters turned out that day, according to the city’s election office.
The voter turnout in previous years have been low, in 2011, voter turnout was 14.71 percent, in 2015 it was 7.12 percent, and 2019 had 7.62 percent.
Duncan MacLean is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2019. Follow Duncan on X @DMacLeanWWLP and view his bio to see more of his work.
