POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica

Boston by the Numbers

by David Trumbull

January 22, 2010


I ran around like crazy on Election Day getting poll watchers for as many as possible of the 160 polls in Boston, just in case it was so close that there would be legal challenges. Never before was I so happy to have worked so hard on something that turned out to be so unnecessary! Brown's victory margin is such that there can be no challenges!

Overall Scott Brown got 30% of the vote in Boston while winning statewide. Now with unofficial results in from all 254 precincts we know that Brown did very well in some neighborhoods. Here in Boston’s “Little Italy,” the North End, which accounted for 2.5% of all the votes cast this past Tuesday, Brown got 47.8% of the vote and won in one of the four North End precincts.

Across the water in Charlestown Brown did slightly better, 48.1% of the vote in that neighborhood which includes Bunker Hill and accounts for 3.9% of the total votes. Brown got the majority in two of the seven precincts where the “Townies” voted.

Brown won in Ward 6, with 55.1% and Ward 7 with 51.4%. Combined those ward accounted for 8.3% of all votes cast in Boston. He won the neighborhood of South Boston (Ward 6 plus 4 precincts in Ward 7) by 55.1%. South Boston accounted for 4.5% of all votes cast in Boston.

West Roxbury (15 of the 20 precincts in Ward 20) tied at 49-and-a-half for each candidate. West Roxbury accounted for 8.1% of the City vote total.

Ward 16 is sometimes considered a “bellwether district” that tends to vote as does the Commonwealth. While Brown got 43.7% overall in that Dorchester ward, he did very well in the eastern and southern precincts, those bordering or near to Quincy, winning three large precincts by good-sized margins. Ward 16 accounted for 4.7% of the total votes in the City.

They are calling it the “Scott Heard ‘Round the World” and for the last few days all eyes have been on Massachusetts. Thank you! to all of you—and there were many—who worked here in Boston on the Brown campaign. And thank you to all the Republican voters in Boston.

[David Trumbull is the chairman of the Boston Ward Three Republican Committee. Boston's Ward Three includes the North End, West End, part of Beacon Hill, downtown, waterfront, Chinatown, and part of the South End.]

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