Election in Somerville next Tuesday, November 6

[ron_newman]

Next Tuesday, November 6, Somerville will hold an election for all city offices - Mayor, Alderman-at-Large, Ward Alderman, and School Committee member. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm. This page will tell you where to vote, and what ward you live in.

For mayor, incumbent Joe Curtatone is being challenged by Suzanne Bremer.

Six candidates (four incumbents, two challengers) are running for the four alderman-at-large seats.

In wards 5, 6, and 7 (the wards closest to Davis Square), the current ward alderman is running for re-election against a challenger.

In wards 1, 2, 3, and 4, the current ward alderman is unopposed for re-election.

All School Committee seats are unopposed; in ward 4, nobody is on the ballot at all because the incumbent failed to return sufficient petition signatures on time.

Mayoral candidates:
Suzanne Bremer
Joe Curtatone - incumbent

Alderman-at-Large candidates - vote for up to four
Fred Berman
Jack Connolly - incumbent
Bruce Desmond - incumbent
Tony Lafuente
Dennis Sullivan - incumbent
Bill White - incumbent

Ward 5 Alderman
Joe Lynch
Sean O'Donovan - incumbent - if he has a web site, I can't find it

Ward 6 Alderman
Charles Chisholm
Rebekah Gewirtz - incumbent

Ward 7 Alderman
Rachel Heller
Bob Trane - incumbent

Somerville Journal article: Candidates for alderman at large have varied backgrounds to choose from - also links to videos of each candidate answering two questions from the Journal
Somerville News article: Candidates tell you where they stand

Candidates' responses to questionnaires from ...
Local anti-poverty organizations (mayoral candidates only)
Progressive Democrats of Somerville
Somerville Dog Owners' Group (som|dog)

My earlier LJ post about this election
And an even earlier LJ post

For my own preferences, see the comments.

Comments

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading my mind Ron -- I was just about to post asking someone for this kind of info. :)

Can you say some more about how the voting for alderman-at-large works? I understand that there's some funky stuff if you vote for fewer candidates than there are open seats. ???

[ron_newman]

You may cast up to four votes. If you feel really strongly that one or two candidates are preferable to all the others, you may want to cast fewer than four votes. I don't understand your last sentence.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Sorry I was unclear -- aquaflame16 explained what I was trying to get at. Basically it boils down to, if you feel strongly about one person and "ehh" about the others, you're better off just voting for that one person in order to sort of maximize the "strength" of your vote.

Also, wanted to add that we trick-or-treated at Joe Lynch's house the other night and I was quite impressed with the pumpkin into which he (or someone) had carved his name and logo. :)

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

I think what you're thinking of is the idea of a "bullet" vote.
As I understand it, the way this works is just that if one candidate is really important to you, but you think it might be close, you vote only for that one candidate and not for any others, thereby not helping the others to possibly beat the one you care about most.

Example (with a very small population ;):
Candidates A,B,C,D,E,F
No bullet voting:
A: 8
B: 10
C: 7
D: 6
E: 5
F: 4

10 people voted, each for 4 candidates each. Everyone likes B, most people like A and C. The last spot is down to D, E, F. Let's say there were two people who really wanted E to win, but happen to also have cast votes for D, allowing D to beat E. Had these two people cast bullet votes for E only, E would have beaten D.

With bullet voting:
A: 7
B: 8
C: 6
D: 4
E: 5
F: 4

So now, A, B, and C still win, but along with E, instead of D.

People seem to have mixed opinions about the ethics of bullet voting, but it is certainly allowed.

Hope that made any sense!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

That did make sense, and you spared me trying to explain what I meant to Ron when I only half-understood it myself. ;) So thanks!

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

you are most welcome, glad I could help. :)

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I could not have explained it as well as that. I will probably still cast two votes, though.