I’ve been very curious to see the precinct-by-precinct results for Boston. And when I did, I decided to go through them and find some interesting tidbits about turnout and candidate support. (For reference, here’s a map of Boston’s wards and precincts.)
Turnout
Aside from the phantom precinct, there were four precincts with turnout below 5%: Ward 21 Precinct 2 (1.65%), Ward 21 Precinct 3 (3.20%), Ward 4 Precinct 10 (3.7%), and Ward 21 Precinct 4 (3.91%). Ward 21 is Allston-Brighton–so, basically students (BU, BC, and Harvard). Ward 4 Precinct 10 consists of the Colleges of the Fenway (Emmanuel College, MassArt, MCPHS University, Simmons College, Wentworth Institute, and Wheelock College).
DigBoston had a sad-and-funny-at-the-same-time piece on Ward 21 Precinct 2, the “saddest little polling location in Boston.”
If you wanted to round out the bottom 10, you’d get Ward 4 Precinct 9 (5.01%), Ward 21 Precinct 8 (5.34%), Ward 21 Precinct 9 (5.58%), Ward 21 Precinct 1 (6.09%), Ward 21 Precinct 15 (6.22%), and Ward 21 Precinct 5 (6.51%). Ward 4 Precinct 9 consists of the area around Northeastern University–mostly a mix of students and housing projects. There were 17 other precincts with turnout below 10%, mostly in student-heavy areas like the ones already noted or Mission Hill.
Only 9 precincts had turnout above 30%: Ward 19 Precinct 2 (35.21%), Ward 20 Precinct 6 (33.59%), Ward 20 Precinct 14 (33.58%), Ward 20 Precinct 12 (33.17%), Ward 16 Precinct 9 (32.85%), Ward 20 Precinct 11 (32.53%), Ward 20 Precinct 4 (30.66%), Ward 19 Precinct 8 (30.55%), and Ward 7 Precinct 1 (30.13%).
The precincts from Wards 19 and 20 are in Roslindale and West Roxbury, Ward 7 Precinct 1 is South Boston, and Ward 16 Precinct 9 is in Dorchester.
If you were to round out the top 10, you’d have Ward 20 Precinct 18 (29.92%).
Gubernatorial Candidates
Where did each candidate do his/her best?
Don Berwick’s best precinct was Ward 19 Precinct 8 in Jamaica Plain, where he received 54.18% of the vote. Don did well throughout Jamaica Plain, winning Ward 10 Precinct 9, Ward 11 Precincts 6-10, and Ward 19 Precincts 1, 3-6, and 8.
Martha Coakley’s best precinct was Ward 14 Precinct 5 in Mattpan, where she won 80.00% of the vote. Martha did well throughout Ward 14, winning over 60% of the vote in each precinct.
Steve Grossman’s best precinct was Ward 7 Precinct 2 in South Boston, where he won 52.60% of the vote. Steve did well in South Boston, winning Ward 6 Precincts 5-9 and Ward 7 Precincts 1-3.
Where did each candidate do his/her worst?
Don Berwick’s worst precinct was Ward 14 Precinct 5 in Mattapan, where he received only 2.67% of the vote.
Martha Coakley’s worst precinct was Ward 20 Precinct 20 in West Roxbury (right at the border with Brookline and Newton), where she received only 25.57% of the vote.
Steve Grossman’s worst precinct was Ward 14 Precinct 9 in Mattapan, where he received only 14.04% of the vote.
One trend I found particularly noteworthy was how well Coakley did in the majority-black precincts.
Using 2011 data, I identified 55 such precincts: Ward 8 Precincts 3, 4, and 7; Ward 9 Precinct 5; Ward 11 Precincts 2 and 3; Ward 12 Precincts 1-9; Ward 14 Precincts 1-14; Ward 15 Precincts 2 and 5; Ward 17 Precincts 1-5, 7, 8, 10-12, and 14; Ward 18 Precincts 1-6, 8, 14, 15, and 21. These precincts cover area in Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, and Dorchester.
Martha Coakley won all of them with clear majorities, ranging from 52.68% (Ward 8 Precinct 3) to 80.00% (Ward 14 Precinct 5). Her margin of victory ranged from 23.66% in Ward 17 Precinct 4 to 64.91% in Ward 14 Precinct 9.
In 49 out of the 55, she had over 60% of the vote. In 25 of the 55, she had over 70%.
I didn’t take the time to go through this for the down ballot races, but I’d be very curious to see the results.
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