RECENT ELECTION RETURNS have generated much discussion as to a change in voting patterns in Massachusetts and elsewhere across the country. The research we have done over a period of years has concluded that there is a different Boston electorate – and a much larger one – during quadrennial November presidential elections. The turnout is […]
James Sutherland
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Boston’s presidential election numbers
NATIONWIDE, THE STORY over the past couple of weeks has been how Donald Trump outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Back here in Boston the converse was true: Hillary Clinton trounced Donald Trump. Clinton did slightly better in Boston than President Obama did in both 2008 and 2012. Even further, Clinton did not […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Four arguments for four-year Boston City Council terms
THERE HAS BEEN a great deal of discussion and debate after the Boston City Council recently voted 12-1 in favor of extending their term length from two years to four years in order to coincide with the four-year mayoral term. Final approval of any changes to their term length still requires the sign-off of the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The incredibly vanishing Boston voter
WE HAVE LOOKED at voter turnout in each off-year Boston City Council election beginning in 1985 – the first off-year election after the change in the structure of government brought about by a referendum four years prior. There has been a decline in participation in off-year city elections, even as the population has increased and […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Instant runoff voting could improve Boston elections
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, voter turnout in local elections has steadily dropped. Electorates for local elections are a shell of what they once were — and of what they could be, given the more robust turnout for state and national elections. This fall, voters in Boston will go to the polls to elect members of the […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Kid-free Boston
IN A 2011 Boston Globe op-ed, columnist Scot Lehigh asked: “Where are the snow shovelers of yesteryear?” He suggested that the once-eager entrepreneurs must be more consumed by Facebook, texting, and video games than by making a few quick dollars trudging through the snow and slush. This winter’s snowfall has many Bostonians echoing Lehigh’s question. We crunched some numbers and now we have […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion, Politics
A tale of two cities
Throughout this municipal election season, we have highlighted – here, here, and here – the bifurcated nature of Boston’s electorate. On November 5, Boston selected its first new mayor in more than 20 years. After the field had been narrowed from 12 candidates in September, voters were left with a choice between two well-qualified yet […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
No surge of ‘new’ voters
In the Spring issue of CommonWealth, several months before Boston’s September mayoral preliminary election, we argued that a candidate who was able to energize the incipient swath of new voters in the city’s northern and downtown neighborhoods could potentially emerge victorious. In that article, as well as a follow-up online analysis of the recent special […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Elections highlight shifts in Boston voting
In the spring issue of CommonWealth, we wrote about the shifts occurring in the distribution of votes in Boston, highlighting the big increase in votes coming from downtown and other northern neighborhoods populated mainly by white, younger, and educated professionals (Statistically Significant, “Where the votes are in Boston”). We wrote that these residents, who have […]
Posted inPolitics
Where the votes are in Boston
THE 2000 CENSUS CATEGORIZED BOSTON as a majority-minority city for the first time in its history, but this new classification has not been the primary cause of a changing political climate in the city over the last decade. Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters, while increasing in number, do not yet represent a significant percentage of […]