I am looking at our form list and I show a form with 482 submissions, but to the left of the name of the form it says 326

Is the number to the left this years submissions and the other number total submissions?

I believe you are referring to this form:

The number below the name shows the total number of submissions and the number to the left of the name shows the number of unread submissions.  Viewing submissions from the submission panel will reduce the number to the left:

https://www.jotform.com/help/269-How-to-View-Form-Submissions

Is this based upon the first contact on the email list, or all contacts on the email list?

This is based submissions received through the form.  482 is the total submissions stored for your form.  312 is the number of submissions that have not been viewed directly in the submission panel.  Emails do not have any affect on either total.