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 […]
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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]