Vote today!

[cos]

Today is the special election to choose Somerville's new State Representative. Polls are open until 8pm.

The district covers the middle half of Somerville, from roughly Union Square to about a couple of blocks past Davis Square (towards Tufts). Check your address at WhereDoIVoteMA.com to see if you're in the district (scroll down and see if your "Rep in General Court" is "VACANT")

The candidates are Denise Provost and Elizabeth Moroney. Although both are good, and have similar positions on most issues, I think it's extremely important for the Massachusetts progressive movement, and much better for Somerville, for Denise Provost to be elected today. See my long post from yesterday about why I think so.

I've heard from a lot of people that Denise Provost is a shoe-in and will win. Don't be complacent! This is a special election, so the overwhelming majority of voters will not vote, and it will be decided by the small handful who do. Yes, a large majority of Somerville voters prefer Denise Provost, and yes, she should win this election easily, and would win it easily if enough people voted. But that doesn't mean she necessarily will win, if only 1 out of 10 people vote. Anything could happen.
[Edit: Remember, Carl Sciortino got elected on a margin of only 93 votes in 2004! And that was a regular state primary, when a lot more people vote. And while you're at it remembering that, don't forget that Denise Provost supported Carl and Elizabeth Moroney supported Vinnie Ciampa.]

Whether you live in the district or not, if you care about Somerville and about Davis Square, today is the day to volunteer for your candidate and help get out the vote. The candidate that does a better job getting her voters to the polls today will be elected, and that means your candidate needs your help.

Hope to see some of you at the Provost campaign office today (it's next door to Diesel, on the 3rd floor).

Where to find out election returns?

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

The polls will be closing in about ten minutes.
Anybody got suggestions for good websites to keep track of the returns on?
I figure we should have results by about 11:00, but I don't think this will be big enough news for any of the nightly newscasts to report on it.

The mystery plumber came back today

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Over three weeks ago i posted this about a plumber who showed up unexpectedly at my place:

"Anybody get a surprise visit from a plumber?"
http://www.livejournal.com/community/davis_square/424871.html

This morning im going to work, and this pickup truck on my street looks _really_ familiar. Im sitting there while the car warms up, and then _that same guy i saw_(!) gets out of the truck.

My neighbor comes out on his porch, and lets him in the cellar, plus another guy from a van. So, i'm pretty sure now he was cool. Maybe he was looking for that neighbor the other day.

As to why he couldnt give me a name (see linked post), i scoped out his truck pretty good this morning, and it's from a pretty big company; the guy they send out might not have the customer's name. But thanks to all who commented.

Someday Cafe's 'wiffiti' screen: boon or bane?

[ron_newman]

Last week, the Someday Cafe installed a plasma video screen which they call a Wiffiti board. The idea is, you send it a short text message from your cellphone, and it displays that message on the screen, alongside many other people's messages. It's an experiment by a Davis Square company called LocaModa.

Some people don't seem to like it at all. Join in on the discussion here and here.