Category Archives: Elections

Expanding Voter Participation

Posted on March 9, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Cliff Krieger has a summary of the CC Rules subcommittee meeting that I attended last night with a group of people Greg Page had asked me join to discuss ways to increase voter participation and gather ideas, suggestions about how to insure all residents of Lowell are represented by our city council.
http://right-side-of-lowell.blogspot.com/2011/03/expanding-voter-participation.html

The city council voted to create a Charter Committee made up of representatives from each of the nine active neighborhood groups. Each neighborhood representative will hold meetings within their neighborhoods to discuss how the city can encourage more voter participation as well as looking at options to encourage more people to consider summing for city council. Things as simple as physical boundaries to getting to the polls or as Councilor Mercier mentioned, possibly change the times or days of the week we hold elections. The point is to gather a variety of suggestions from the general public.

Thanks to Greg for giving me an opportunity to work on something I feel is important to all of us. Secondly the group requested that the city council appoint one representative and one alternate from each neighborhood group. Since I feel that LDNA needs a voice other than mine…I know you will all be competing for a place on this committee. It is not a huge commitment likely one meeting per month for the next 12 months. For the sake of efficiency I would like to suggest that we dedicate a portion of each LDNA meeting to the subject.

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Posted in City Council, Community Issues, Downtown, Elections, Neighborhood Organizations

From our friends at UTEC

Posted on December 14, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Recently, the Lowell City Council has voted to draft a home-rule petition to lower the voting age in Lowell from 18 to 17 in municipal elections. This was in response to a Youth-Led City Council Candidates Forum organized by UTEC youth in 2009. At this forum, youth expressed concern about ensuring that their voices are fully heard, and also stated their interest in the need to increase civic engagement among young people.

On Tuesday, November 9, 2010, a motion was introduced to draft a home-rule petition to lower the voting age to 17 in Lowell municipal elections. It passed 8-1. Last Tuesday, December 7th, the Rules Subcommittee also approved the motion for the City Solicitor to draft the official language. Teens from UTEC, Teens Leading the Way (our statewide youth-led advocacy coalition), and the Lowell Youth Council spoke to the council subcommittee members about what lowering the voting age would mean for them and the youth of Lowell.

Tonight, at 6:30pm in Lowell City Hall, the full Council will vote on passing this motion and moving it forward to the state legislature.
Coupled with our statewide efforts to have a civics course as a required high school graduation requirement, we see this motion as a unique opportunity to launch a movement to increase civic action among young people in Lowell and beyond.
How Can You Help?
We are asking that as many supporters attend the meeting which will be held tonight in the Council Chambers of Lowell City Hall, 375 Merrimack Street, at 6:30 pm. You will join youth and adult supporters as we thank the Lowell City Council for approving this historic vote, and kicking off our campaign to let Lowell lead the way to increase voter and civic engagement in our communities.

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Posted in City Council, Community Issues, Downtown Lowell, Elections

Posted on January 15, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Tuesday, January 19th,
is the special election to fill the Senate seat held for more than 40 years by Ted Kennedy.
Don’t know where to vote? For all downtown residents; Masonic Hall (across from LPD-next to Cobblestones).
VOTE!!!

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Posted in Elections, Senate, Special Elections

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

Posted on November 13, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Thanks to Dick Howe for posting the election results by ward/precinct; here’s some additional numbers and they show a steady growth-rate.
I do not yet have 2-1 and 2-2 for 2007.
Ward 2, Percent 3 includes most of “downtown”, Appleton to Warren, to Dutton, to Fr. Morrisette

2009 City Council Election
18.5% turn-out (439 voters)
Total number of voters for Ward 2 = 801

2007 City Council Election
17.4% turn-out (336 voters)

2005 City Council Election
15.3% turn-out (261 voters)

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Posted in City Council, Downtown, Election, Elections, Lowell

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…

Posted on November 4, 2009 by | 1 comment

Just saw this on SUN.com http://www.lowellsun.com/election/ci_13710620
That’s our Ted…always in the “thick-of-things”.

There’s all kinds of people lurking around the neighborhood tonight makin all kinds of noise…WTF?

Oh, maybe it has something to do with this!
City Council Election Results
Rita Mercier 6,951
Edward Caulfield 6,309
Franky Descoteaux 6,242
James Milinazzo 5,767
Kevin Broderick 5,766
William Martin 5,678
Joseph Mendonca 5,478
Patrick Murphy 4,924
Rodney Elliott 4,851
But a much more impressive number is 170; that is the increase in voter turn-out downtown compared to 2007. I’ll have more numbers later, but apparently people realized that this group of nine are the people responsible for making policy and setting the tax rate in our city and you made your opinion of who those people should be by getting out and voting. Thank you all!

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Posted in City Council, Elections, Lowell

City Council Election TUESDAY!!!

Posted on October 30, 2009 by | Leave a comment

If you need more information about the candidates there are videos on the “left in Lowell” web site from candidates who answered their questionnaire.
http://www.leftinlowell.com/lil-candidate-video-questionnaires/
Over at the SUN you can read an interview with each of the candidates.
http://www.lowellsun.com/election

Personally my favorite endorsement comes from “Lowell Shallot”…although certainly not the language I would have used; I think I’m going to do a write-in for J. Dayne Lamb. We could only wish that someone as bright as her would possibly run for city council.
http://www.lowellshallot.com/
5. Dayne Lamb (write-in): She’ll use her superior intellect to tear each of these %&*#* a new $@&*^ and fix EVERYTHING in Lowell.
Need more information about voting “YES” on question 1?
http://www.fairvotelowell.org/

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Posted in City Council, Elections

Let’s all vote for the Duck!

Posted on October 28, 2009 by | 1 comment

If you haven’t watched it yet; check out the UTEC city council forum on LTC. Their time-keeper was wearing a duck costume and “quacked” when the candidate had run out of time on their response to a question. As much as I appreciate Greg volunteering for the time-keeper job; I never realized how much more fun we would have had if we dressed him up as some kind of fowl.

I had the greatest sense of nostalgia watching this because it brought to mind how smart I was when I was a teenager and made me wonder; when I get so stupid? Life was just so much simpler then. I didn’t have to pay a mortgage or wonder how to pay for a child to go to college; if there would be Medicare for me when my day comes…there was just so much time to ponder life and all it had to offer that I hadn’t experienced yet. I really applaud these kids for making their forum all about them and expressed what they see as the “big issues”.

On the other hand there’s us “old folks” whose forum was important and I was thrilled to see so many people come out and show that they are concerned about our neighborhood and the city and how the choices our councilors make effects our lives and our financial well-being. But we are boring compared to these kids and we do have a whole different set of issues that we would like to see addressed by our city councilors. All-in-all I came away from our forum pretty sad because I did not hear a single thing that made me stop and think, “wow, that was a good idea”… yeah, nothing at all, just the same old regurgitation of the nonsense we hear every two years. I’m waiting for the candidate that does not make me feel like a lemming and voting for the lesser evil.

I have discovered one way that the city council is good for our economy. Somewhere towards the end of tonight’s council meeting when I noticed I had been banging my head against the wall for about five minutes; I realized I needed a drink. So I walked down the street to Centro and opted for the “triple chocolate” dessert instead; but I spent some money in the neighborhood. And I would like all of the candidates to know that if it had cost me an extra $0.20 because of the meals tax, I would have bought it anyway…although I’m on a very strict budget… as my niece once told me, “Auntie, sometimes you just have to have the chocolate”.

update: turns out the SUN was there:
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_13649942?IADID=Search-www.lowellsun.com-www.lowellsun.com

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Posted in City Council, Election, Elections

CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FORUM

Posted on September 22, 2009 by | Leave a comment

I thought I would take a quick look at see if anyone had posted any comments about the CNAG City Council Candidate Forum… this is not going to be quick after all…
Here are some opportunities to read opinions, check out some of the local comments:

Left-in-Lowell
http://www.leftinlowell.com/2009/09/22/cnag-forum-observations/

SUN
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_13392499

Richard Howe
http://richardhowe.com/2009/09/21/city-council-candidates-night-in-centralville/

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Posted in City Council, Community Issues, Elections, Lowell

FAIR VOTE LOWELL

Posted on August 28, 2009 by | Leave a comment

The SUN is reporting that Fair vote Lowell turned in enough signatures yesterday to put this question on the November ballot! Great work!
‘Choice-voting’ question going on Lowell ballot
By Jennifer Myers, jmyers@lowellsun.com

LOWELL — A question will appear on this November’s city election ballot asking voters to change the city’s current voting system to a proportional system.
Elections Office manager Gail Cenik reported that Victoria Fahlberg, the executive director of ONE Lowell who is spearheading the Fair Vote Lowell initiative, turned in 5,126 valid signatures yesterday, more than 900 above what was required for ballot placement.
Under “proportional” or “choice” voting, voters rank their candidates by preference, filling in the “1” oval next to the name of their top choice, “2” for their second, etc.
In counting the votes, a formula is used to determine the number of votes a candidate needs to reach to win. The most common formula divides the number of votes cast by the number of available seats plus one. One is then added to that figure.
For instance, if 12,000 voters cast ballots, a candidate would win a seat by earning 1,201 first-choice picks. Once a candidate reaches the magic number, the remaining ballots on which she was the first choice would be doled out to the second-choice candidates on each. Any candidate who reaches the threshold is automatically elected.
http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_13222165

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Posted in Election, Elections, ONE Lowell, Voting

City Council Election

Posted on July 22, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Update: 7/30/09
In a SUN story headlined…Move to change charter for elections under way
is this quote by City Councilor Kazanjian “Let the people decide. It is their primary.” http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_12936636

I prefer not to call anyone a hypocrite because on any given day depending on the circumstances…there’s a chance I could become one myself (if that happens I hope someone calls me out on it). Just in case… I will say good for him for “seeing the light”. It is the people’s primary and those are the people who should decide.

Also, this just in from Greg’s blog:
http://anewenglanderinlowell.blogspot.com/2009/07/quick-5w-fair-vote-lowell-organization.html
What: Fair Vote Lowell Organization Meeting
Who: ANYONE interested, regardless of past or current involvement level with this initiative
When: Friday, 31 JUL, at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Saint Ann’s Church, 8 Kirk Street
Why: To discuss strategies for gathering enough valid signatures to get the petition on the ballot
Best Point of Contact on this, or any other upcoming related events, would be Dr. Victoria Fahlberg — vfalhberg@onelowell.net

The saga continued last night… there will be no primary election!

If you were not able to attend or watch on television…please take the time to watch your current city government in action before they start asking for your vote this November.

Simply stated by Bob Forrant comment on www.RichardHowe.com
I’ve said elsewhere and I will say it here too, using my real name, that it is a perversion of democracy to have individuals in power vote to change the rules of the game while the game is in progress.

I was happy to see that Dick Howe has video posted of each councilors reasons for/against holding the primary
http://richardhowe.com/category/2009-election/
…except for CC Lenzi, he was absent; as he has stated in the past, it is only convenient for him to attend two CC meetings per month.

If you want to see more of CC R. Mercier’s reasons for “NOT” holding a primary, hop on over to www.leftinlowell.com
In addition there is the statement by CC candidate Partick Murphy…he sounds like a reasonable guy…we should get to know him better.

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Posted in City Council, Election, Elections, ONE Lowell, Voting