Does it matter if no one shows up for a primary?

And what does it cost?

Third, it must be remembered that many the costs of election administration tend to fall on the state’s municipal governments, many of which have been forced to cut back on a variety of services over the past decade.  Here in Worcester, it is easy to draw a connection between the cost of administering an election where no one votes and the loss of a teaching position in the public schools.  This may be an unfair linkage – after all, cities have many responsibilities that they must juggle – but citizens do make these connections, and this translates into resentment of the primary process in general.

 from this guest post by Clark University Professor Robert Boatright over on the MassPoliticsProf blog (which I highly recommend in general).