Somerville election results, and general post-election open thread

[ron_newman]

Unofficial Somerville election results, broken down by precinct and ward, are here. I don't think you'll find any great surprises. Citywide:

Total votes: 35062
Obama-Biden: 28467 (81.2%)
Romney-Ryan: 4865 (13.9%)
Stein-Honkala: 747 (2.1%)
Johnson-Gray: 543 (1.5%)
Write In: 108 (0.3%)
Blank: 332 (0.9%)

Local question 4, the Community Preservation Act property tax surcharge, won overwhelmingly, 24358-7714 (with 2990 blanks). I hope this will bring much-needed repairs and restoration to the West Branch Library and the Prospect Hill Tower.

I'd love to compare this year's local results to 2008, but I can't find them online anywhere. If you know where to find these, please link to them in the comments here. The pages linked from my 11/7/2008 post no longer work. ETA: Tom Champion e-mailed me an Excel spreadsheet from which I extracted these citywide results for 2008. I also converted that 2008 spreadsheet into a Google Doc which you can find here.

This post is an open thread for any discussion whatsoever about yesterday's election (Somerville-related or otherwise).

Comments

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Hey Ron (or Tom Champion, if he's around), somewhat off topic, but since you worked a polling place, maybe you know. When I checked out of my polling place (in North Cambridge), the man who "checked me out" called out my name and street adress quite loudly. I had noticed he did this with everyone he checked out, shouting "First Name, Last Name, Street Address". I also noticed two people sitting in chairs writing down names and addresses that he shouted. I don't remember ever having that happen when I voted before. Any ideas what that was about?

[ron_newman]

That didn't happen at my polling place, but two people from the Warren campaign sat behind the officials at the check-in table of Somerville 6-1. They checked off names on their own lists as voters checked in, and occasionally the city election officials repeated a name if the Warren poll watchers hadn't heard it clearly.

I believe any campaign is allowed to station poll watchers and take down names this way, to support their get-out-the-vote efforts.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

He was almost certainly repeating your name for observers, most likely from the Warren campaign.

As Ron mentioned, the campaigns are legally entitled to send observers to the polls. They are supposed to sit behind the inspectors and not interact with the voters in anyway. However, the inspectors are then required to clearly repeat the voter's name and address so the observers can record it.

The reason campaigns send observers is so they can make sure the supporters they identified through canvassing actually vote. If you told a Warren volunteer you were supporting her and didn't vote before 4pm, they would then make an effort to contact you and get you to the polls. That's how such efforts typically work anyway.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I suppose that makes sense, except they may not have been actually checking their lists, because after I voted, i had two different people come to my house over the course of the rest of the day to ask if i had voted yet. i've never seen such an aggressive effort to get people to vote.