Vote in this THURSDAY's primary election

[ron_newman]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is holding a primary election this THURSDAY, September 6. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm.. Depending on where you live, you may have contested races for one or more of: US Representative in Congress, State Senator, State Representative, Governor's Council, Register of Deeds.

As a result of the 2010 census, all Congressional and state legislative district lines have changed. So have some ward and precinct lines. Some polling places have moved, most notably Somerville Ward 6 Precinct 1, which is no longer at the Dilboy VFW and is now instead at the Kennedy School, Sartwell Avenue entrance.

To find out what ward and precinct you are now in, where your polling place is, and who is on your primary ballot, fill out the form at http://WhereDoIVoteMA.com .

If you are registered in the Democratic, Republican, or Green-Rainbow party, you may take only that party's ballot. If you are unenrolled (independent), you may take any (one) party's ballot; doing so will not automatically enroll you in that party.

For Somerville election information, including sample ballots, list of polling places, and a map of wards and precincts: http://www.somervillema.gov/departments/elections . In Somerville, only the Democratic ballot is useful, as the Republican ballot has no contested races and the Green-Rainbow ballot has no names printed on it at all. Many Somerville precincts have a Democratic race between incumbent state rep Denise Provost and her challenger, Harry Kortikere.

For Cambridge election information, including lists of candidates and maps of districts, wards and precincts, and polling locations: http://www.cambridgema.gov/election . Cambridge has two three-way Democratic races for seats in the Massachusetts House, as well as a three-way Republican contest to pick a sacrificial lamb candidate against Congressman Ed Markey.

Here's a Boston Globe voter's guide with sample ballots and bios and Q&A's of many candidates for different offices.

Click the local politics tag for other recent posts about the primary election.

Comments

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Ron, would you consider making "Kennedy School, Sartwell Ave" into a clickable link to http://tinyurl.com/bq476ap I think this would be very helpful, since it's a change in location.

[ron_newman]

Done. Thanks.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Icon love!

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

As an Arlington resident, I was happy to find Boston Globe has this helpful tool: http://c3.thevoterguide.org/v/boston12/

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I've edited my post to add this link.

[squirrelitude]

I'm unaffiliated. Will taking a Democratic ballot automatically enroll me, or do I need to take steps afterwards to unaffiliate myself?

[ron_newman]

You will remain unaffiliated. (Until a few years ago, this wasn't the case.)

I've edited the post to say this explicitly.

[ckd]

Even then, the auto-enrollment only applied in the Presidential primary.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Arlington/Belmont folks: If issues surrounding elder care and legal advocacy for people with disabilities are a priority for you, please consider voting for Harry Margolis for Governor's Council (http://www.harrysmargolis.com/bio.html).

[ron_newman]

If I lived in your district I probably would, just to get rid of crazy lady Devaney, but does the Governor's Council have any real power to deal with those particular issues?

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

does the Governor's Council have any real power to deal with those particular issues?

Not directly. As my mom says, the Governor's Council is an archaic organization that was probably very important to Governor Winthrop. :)

The primary remaining responsibility of the Governor's Council is to evaluate judicial candidates before permanent appointments are made. Admittedly, not a huge opportunity to effect major change in state government, but someone's got to do it, and it would be nice if one of the someones who was doing it was someone with a track record of elder care/disability rights advocacy.

(Not my district. I live in Cambridge, which is in the 8th District along with Somerville and most of Boston. Arlington, Belmont, Waltham, Watertown, various other places outside of the MBTA Belt, are all District 3 though.)

[ron_newman]

Thanks. Do you have a preference for our own Governor's Council seat? Denise Provost encourages me to vote to re-elect Kennedy, but I'd like to hear your opinion too.

(Cambridge and Somerville are in the 6th Governor's Council district, not the 8th)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

You are correct. 8th Congressional District, 6th Governor's Council District.

In answer to your question, I've had a hard time tracking down info about Kennedy's position on any issues. Flaherty's selling point seems to be that his experience as a business guy will be helpful in, I guess, vetting judges on how well they understand the challenges that face businesses?

Absent any other info, I'm prepared to take Provost's encouragement pretty seriously.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

just to be clear and for info for anyone else voting in this district, there are actually two candidates challenging Devaney in the 3rd district, the above mentioned Harry Margolis and also Charlie Shapiro

http://www.harrysmargolis.com
http://www.voteshapiro.org

[ron_newman]

Which is most unfortunate. It appears that they divided the vote sufficiently that Devaney won.