Election Roundup: Bring on the General Election

We made it! The Boston Preliminary* Election is over! We now know who the candidates will be on November 2nd’s ballot! Our top two vote getters for mayor are City Councilor Michelle Wu with over 33% of the vote and City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George with over 22% of the vote! You will be choosing between the two of them on Tuesday, November 2nd!

We also narrowed down the field of candidates for City Council At-Large (At Large Councilors represent the entire city, not just one section).  The field went from 17 down to eight! The candidates who made it through, in order of votes received: Michael Flaherty, 15%; Julia Mejia, 14%; Ruthzee Louijeune, 12%; Erin Murphy, 8%; Carla Monteiro, 6%; David Halbert, 6%; Althea Garrison, 6%; and Bridget Nee-Walsh 5%.

Flaherty and Mejia are currently on the City Council, Murphy and Halbert are in their second election cycle trying to become At Large Councilors, Garrison was a formerly on the City Council, she took Ayanna Pressley’s seat when she became a Congresswoman, and Louijeaue, Monteiro and Nee-Walsh who are all newcomers to this race!  It should be an exciting two months with these eight candidates vying for four seats on the Council. Remember, in November, you will be voting for FOUR of these candidates because you are voting to fill four positions.

In District Council races, fields were also narrowed. In D4, Brian Worrell (25%) will face off against former state representative Evandro Carvalho (18%). In D7, Tania Fernandes Anderson was the top vote getter, with almost 27% of the vote, and it seems like Roy Owens Sr. was next with just over 17%. D3 did not have a Preliminary race but in November there will be two candidates on the ballot: incumbent Frank Baker and Stephen McBride.

In November, Boston voters will also get to answer a non-binding ballot question. Voters will be asked: “Should the current appointed school committee structure be changed to a school committee elected by the residents of Boston?”  Why does this matter: Boston is the only municipality in Massachusetts that does not elect its school committee members; the school committee is appointed by the mayor. This is a non-binding question but it will let the powers that be know your opinion!

Turn-out was extremely, depressingly, low for the Preliminary Election but it is not too late to register to vote for the November election! Voting in Boston is pretty easy, you can even vote by mail and yesterday the City Council voted on a measure that basically authorized putting stamps on mail-in ballots so you don’t have to provide proper postage! To register to vote or to update your home address, visit here! It will not take long, I promise!

For the first time in its history, Boston is going to elect a woman to lead the city. Don’t you want to be part of that history and vote?!

* It’s a Preliminary Election and not a Primary because it doesn’t matter what party the candidate is registered with, in municipal elections in Massachusetts, every candidate is in the same pool regardless of political party.