Somerville and Cambridge election results

[ron_newman]

Somerville election results are available on the city web site by ward (HTML) and by precinct (PDF).

All of the votes are pretty lopsided. You'll find no surprises here, except possibly for the two non-binding questions.

The confusingly-worded Question 4 regarding religious discrimination in Israel won, 9100-5542 (with 4431 blanks). Question 5, which proposed replacing the state legislature by an assembly of 100 randomly-chosen citizens, lost resoundingly, 3468-11415 (with 4090 blanks). (Edit: In Somerville, these were on the ballot only in Denise Provost's legislative district, which covers about half the city.)

Cambridge election results are here, though only as totals and not broken down by ward and precinct. They either didn't bother counting write-ins and blanks, or just didn't report them online. Part of Cambridge had the same non-binding Question 4 as Somerville, and it won there by 9668-3662. Another part of Cambridge had a different non-binding Question 4 regarding greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy; that also won by a huge margin.

Besides President and US Senator, no other offices were contested in either city. Just a bunch of Democrats running unopposed for 1 US House seat, 8 Mass. House seats, 4 Mass. Senate seats, 2 Governor's Council seats, and Middlesex County Register of Probate.

Comments

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

It still amazes me that 308 people in Somerville went to the polls and didn't vote for president.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Maybe they forgot that side of the ballot. :P

[ron_newman]

Or they 'voted' in a manner that the optical scanner did not recognize.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

Any word yet on what went wrong with the polls on Election Day? I noticed W6P2 processed only 2K ballots -- less than many other precincts -- yet had 2-hour lines.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Maybe all 2000 of them tried to vote at the same time ;). Certainly my husband stood in line for an hour at 9am (in ward 5), and I had 2 people in front of me at 3pm.

[ron_newman]

Less than many others? Only W6P1 had more voters than your precinct.

All 21 precincts had equal population when they were last redrawn after the 2000 census. Maybe populations have greatly shifted since then, or else some precincts have many more non-voters (children, non-citiizens, students registered in their home state) than others.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

You're right. I accidentally looked at the Ward totals, which contain multiple precincts.

But if all 21 precincts have roughly equal populations, why were there such long lines at some precincts? Staffing issues? Problems with the scanners? Inadequate locations?

I e-mailed the Board of Elections Tuesday and received no response.

[ron_newman]

Equal populations but not necessarily equal number of voters, for the reasons I suggested above. W6P3 contains much of Tufts University, and a lot of those folks probably vote by absentee ballot in their parents' states.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I think most of the long lines were due to clumping; there was an hour long line at my precinct (W6P1) at 11am and no line at 4:30pm. People worrying about long lines seemed to go earlier in the day, which led to long lines then.

[ron_newman]

We must have voted at the same time, because I also got in line there at 11:00 and got out at noon.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

I'm sure "clumping" is part of the reason, but other people on this blog reported waiting for 2 hours at my precinct even after arriving an hour later. And my wife, who gave up waiting after waiting for .5 hours in the morning, still wound up waiting for another when she arrived at the polls at 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, almost all my co-workers reported little or no waiting at their polling places in other towns -- even when they got there at peak times before work. So, there must be some other explanation at work as well.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I have a question that I hope will not sound too foolish (oh well, too late):
I vote in ward 7, precinct 3 and did not see questions 4 & 5 on my ballot -- were they and "all-Somerville" vote? Limited to certain wards?

[ron_newman]

In Somerville, they were on the ballot only in Denise Provost's legislative district. You are in Carl Sciortino's district. Question 4 was also on the ballot in Alice Wolf's district in Cambridge.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that it must have had to do with being in a different district but wasn't sure; thanks for confirming my suspicion.

[ron_newman]

I've edited the post to clarify this. Thanks.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

That's odd, I was there at 3:30, and it took over half an hour.

I sent the Trickettes and their friend over to J.P. Licks for ice cream once the line turned the corner from Winslow to College (they handled themselves commendably, crossing at the light and returning all the change), and all three returned and finished with their scoops well before we got into the courtyard of Ciampa Manor, nevermind inside to vote.

I can't help but to think we've got some pokey poll workers in 6-2(compared to my old voting digs in 6-3), but WTFDIK?