Analysis
Simply put: Menino romped. Running roughshod over his opponents in most traditional wards, communities of color, and progressive neighborhoods, Menino is poised to win big in November. He claimed a win in 19 of the city’s 22 wards.
Michael Flaherty was able to win three wards outright (which is noteworthy, as Menino only lost a handful of precincts in his 2005 race against Maura Hennigan and won every precinct in his 2001 race against Peggy Davis-Mullen). Flaherty took his native South Boston by a large margin and Charlestown by under 100 votes.
Flaherty’s efforts in Wards 16 and 20 – where he had hoped to put some points on the board – fell flat. Ward 16 (Neponset/Adams Village) went to Menino by about 300 votes and powerhouse Ward 20 (Roslindale/West Roxbury) went to Menino by about 2,000 votes.
Yoon had hoped to cobble together a win (or at least a place) by showing strength in progressive neighborhoods and communities of color. He was unsuccessful.
Menino took Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and the South End with stunning majorities. He also outpolled Yoon in Jamaica Plain by 200 votes in Ward 11 and 70 votes in Ward 19. Winning JP, even by slim margins, was a huge feather in the Mayor’s cap.
Yoon has the distinction of coming in second place in more wards than Michael Flaherty. Yoon was the runner up in 13 wards and third place finisher in 9 wards. He did not place first in any ward.
Flaherty won 3 wards, came in second in six wards, and third place in 13 wards.
Menino won 19 wards and came in second in three wards.
McCrea placed fourth in all 22 wards.
In terms of percentages of votes cast: Menino’s best showing came from Ward 14 (Blue Hill Ave/Columbia Road) where he won 72.47% of the vote. His worst showing was Ward 6 (South Boston) where he won 22.66% of the vote.
The corollary was true for Michael Flaherty. His best showing was winning 63.68% of the vote in Ward 6 and his worst was 8.08% of the vote in Ward 14.
Yoon’s best showing was his second place 38.95% of the vote in Ward 11 (Jamaica Plain). His worst showing was the 9.45% he received in Ward 7 (South Boston).
McCrea’s best showing was in Ward 22 (Allston/Brighton) where he received 6.6% of the vote. His worst was Ward 14 where he received 1.22%.
In terms of raw vote totals (caveat: wards range in size/voter participation greatly); Menino did best in his native Ward 18 (Hyde Park/Mattapan) where he took 6,616 votes. His worst place for collecting votes was Ward 8 (Roxbury/South Bay) where he received 740 votes – and still won the ward dramatically. Surprisingly, Menino came in 3rd place in one precinct: Ward 21-1 (Allston’s BU precinct). There, Yoon won 50 votes, Flaherty took 37, and the Mayor earned 34 votes.
Flaherty collected the most votes in Ward 20 (West Roxbury/Roslindale) where he came in second place with 2,639 votes. His worst showing was also in Ward 8 where he took third place and 137 votes.
Yoon’s best showing for earning votes was in Ward 19 (Jamaica Plain/Roslindale) where he narrowly lost to Menino with 1,823 votes. His worst showing was also Ward 8 where he won second place and 281 votes.
McCrea’s best showing was his fourth place finish in Ward 20 with 557 votes. His worst showing was Ward 12 (Roxbury) where he earned fourth place with only 32 votes.
All in all, Menino won 41,206 votes; Flaherty took 19,459 votes; Yoon earned 17,179 votes; and McCrea garnered 3,340 votes.
For ward by ward breakdown and analysis, please click here.
The 21-1 numbers are depressing. 1149 people voted there in November compared to less than 1/10th of that for this election. Unfortunately a lot of young people don’t realize that local government has just as much, if not more, impact on their lives as the Federal government does. This is why we get people like Councilor Ross coming here saying that he wants to kick the college kids out of Mission Hill. He knows perfectly well they won’t vote in local elections, so he can scapegoat them to his heart’s content without getting any sort of electoral blowback.
Move in day off-campus is Sep 1. You don’t get a lease before then.
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p>So, in the best case scenario, a student registers to vote on September 1, as if he doesn’t have more immediate things to do. If he registers on Sep 1, and if there are no hiccups, he can first vote 20 days later — Sep 22 (since 20 full days puts him at mid-day Sep 21, it isn’t official until the next day). What was election day? Sep 22.
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p>A student who moves in Sep 1 has to register to vote on Sep 1 to be eligible to vote in the race.
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p>If he lives on campus, he might have another day or two, tops. BU move in was August 29, for example.
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p>The problem is the election law. 20 day lead-time effectively disenfranchises students, and there’s no technical, philosophical, or ethical reason why 20 is the magic number. Frankly, I’m surprised that nobody has sued the state on exactly these grounds — the law specifically disenfranchises people who move in on Sep 1 in both local elections (Boston) and state primaries. Switch to same day registration (which works well on other states), and if there’s an issue that directly impacts students, you’ll find many of them will show up and vote.
There’s no reason you shouldn’t vote just because you moved into a new place. You can still vote at your old address for up to six months after you moved. Furthermore, if you’ve moved within the same town, you can continue to vote for as long as you remain on the inactive roll, if you fill out a statement of continued residency and provide identification.
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p>The lack of same day registration in current law does legitimately disenfranchise new residents though. I did not vote in my first state primary here because I did not arrive on time to register.
it’s that none of this is at all made clear, and nobody’s working to help make it happen.
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p>The voter reg form says 20 days. That’s what’s on the form. If these other provisions (voting up to six months after at the old address, moving within same town w/ continued residency and ID*) are legit, the right people don’t know about them.
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p>Same day registration overcomes both the perceived obstructions above as well as the legal obstructions to new residents (as you mentioned in the second paragraph).
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p> * I’ve never heard of this, and am deeply skeptical, as it doesn’t pass the “makes sense” test
** Does the ID have to have their MA address? They’ve got drivers licenses which have their parents’ address, and often don’t have a utility bill in their own name by the time of the election.
I agree that there needs to be better public awareness of them. These rules aren’t even mentioned on the SoS FAQ:
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p>http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele…
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p>Since you don’t believe me about the six month thing here’s an interview with Bill Galvin describing a new law that extends it to 18 months, but requires that the folks in the 7-18 month category be given a partial ballot with only state-wide races.
http://multimedia.wbz.com/m/au…
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p>To address your second concern, the list of acceptable IDs is quite broad, but it does have a strict requirement that the address you registered at be on the ID. Otherwise you must cast a provisional ballot.
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p>Once again, I support same day registration, I’m just trying to explain the current system as a public service, not defending it. The fact the you, an obviously very politically active person, doesn’t know the rules, means that ordinary citizens probably don’t have a prayer. In fact, most people figure these things out when they show up at the polls and are told they need somewhere else to vote or can’t vote at all.
This election would have as much of an effect on my life if it were a fight between the Irish and the Italians over who gets the street sweeping jobs.
But in general if politicians know you won’t show up they will run roughshod over your rights. Boston has discriminatory housing laws targeting students. No one would dream of passing discriminatory ordinances against seniors.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply, I haven’t been a student for a while though, didn’t mean to imply I was.
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p>The student situation is a symptom of so many other things, one of which is a failure of the university to offer the student the education of a gentleman, rather than the education of an ass.
Without the Rozzy areas of Ward 19 Yoon cleans up in the rest of the ward, which maps onto what is generally understood to be JP.