Groton – Since they all ran unopposed, the Groton City mayor and councilors technically only needed one vote to win Monday, and they had that after the four absentee ballots were counted.

But they ended the night with a bit more. Democratic incumbent Mayor Marian K. Galbraith won re-election with 150 votes. Incumbent Deputy Mayor William E. Jervis finished with 141 votes and incumbent city councilors Keith L. Hedrick with 152; Stephen T. Sheffield with 145; Andrew J. Ilvento with 140 and Lawrence W. Gerrish with 138. All of the councilors are Democrats.

Conrad F. Heede, a member of the Representative Town Meeting and a Democrat running for the seat vacated by Republican Jay Dempsey, also ran unopposed and received 139 votes.

Voter turnout marked the lowest in a city election in at least 10 years, said David P. Rose, Democratic registrar in Groton town. Of the 4,472 registered voters in Groton City, 177 cast ballots, or slightly less than 4 percent.

The lowest in the previous 10 years occured in 2005, when turnout fell to 25 percent. The highest turnout during the period was reported in 2013 with 37 percent, Rose said. 

A municipal election typically costs about $20,000 in Groton City, he said.

Tim Rodgers, 62, voted even though all candidates were unopposed.

“I don’t want these guys to think everybody’s so apathetic” they don’t vote, said Rodgers, a full-time project manager who works in Hartford and voted at West Side Middle School. “I want them to know that they’re elected because we voted for them, and they will be held accountable.”

As of noon, 36 people had cast ballots at the Groton Municipal Building.

“It’s a very tiny number,” said Jeanne Rogers, moderator for District 3. “But you’ve got to understand it’s just the city, it’s not the whole town, and there’s nobody running opposed.”

At District 2 in West Side — the city’s only other polling place — moderator David Coleman saw an average of five voters per hour.

But Coleman said he voted. He’s seen people who can barely walk make it to the polls.

“There is something to vote for,” he said. “We’re voting because that’s our privilege. I call it a privilege, not a right. And we should exercise it.”

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim