Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Heading into Tuesday's general election vote, there was a very real concern among some that voter apathy or complacency could be a driving factor in the turn out - especially for the high profile Buffalo mayoral race.
Turns out concerns about voter complacency were well founded.
Not to be overlooked in State Sen. Sean Ryan's overwhelming victory - by nearly 72% - was the fact that the number of people who made their way to the polls was down considerably from 2021 - the last mayor's race.
"My guess is a lot of people may have taken the election for granted, thinking that Sean was going to win," said Jeremy Zellner, Erie County Democratic Party chairman and Erie County Board of Elections commissioner.
The numbers back up what Zellner said.
Tuesday saw a total of 41,653 votes cast in the Buffalo mayor's race and that number was down by more than 42% from 2021 when almost 64,000 votes were recorded in the India Walton vs. Byron Brown's write-in campaign.
"When people are motivated or energized, they will turn out," Zellner said.
June's Democratic Party primary that centered on the mayor's race saw 26,878 votes cast with Ryan besting four other candidates including Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who later bowed out of the general election.
"Once the [June] primary was over, many felt the mayor's race was over and Sean was going to win," Zellner said.
In Buffalo, Democrats have a 6-to-1 voter difference over Republicans. GOP challenger James Gardner received just 9.521 votes - or 23% of Ryan's nearly 30,000 vote total. Independent candidate Michael Gainer has slightly less than 2,000 votes, or 4.6% of the city mayoral vote total.
James Campbell, University at Buffalo Political Science Distinguished Professor, when voters feel the race has already been decided, they frequently stay away from the polls.
"If they feel it is not contested, you will see a smaller turn out," Campbell said.
Unlike the June primary where Scanlon and Ryan respective campaigns spent a combined more than $2 million and flooded the market with TV and radio ads, there was virtually none of that in the general election.
That too became a factor, Campbell said.
"All the so-called 'marginal' voters who may have been motivated by one of the TV ads stayed home," Campbell said. "There wasn't a strong mobilization effort like you saw in 2021."
Still, Campbell said, not to be lost or overlooked was Ryan's large victory margin.
"Anytime you get 70% of the vote, it tells you people are backing you," Campbell said.