Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

November 27, 2013

2013 Cambridge City Council Election Recount

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,elections — Tags: , , , — Robert Winters @ 12:15 pm

2013 Cambridge City Council Election Recount Scheduled

Nov 27 – The Cambridge Election Commission yesterday announced the dates, times, and location for the Recount of the 2013 City Council election. It will take place at the Moore Youth Center, 12 Gilmore Street, in the Riverside neighborhood. (Parking is expected to be a challenge.) Though nobody yet knows how long the Recount will actually take, the Election Commission has reserved the space for a two week period beginning Monday, Dec 2 at 8:30am.

The space is reserved for Mon, Dec 2 through Sat, Dec 7; and Mon, Dec 9 (followed by a break on Tues, Dec 10 for the Congressional election to fill the Markey seat); and Wed, Dec 11 through Sat, Dec 14. All meetings begin at 8:30am at the Moore Youth Center.

Looking Back at the 2001 School Committee Recount

There have been municipal election recounts before, but nothing really compares to the marathon 2001 School Committee Recount that took place in the former space of the Election Commission on Green Street (above the old Police Station). Here are a few images from that marathon – just to whet your appetite for the 2013 City Council Recount scheduled to begin Dec 2, 2013.

Recount 2001 Recount 2001
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Recount 2001

November 26, 2013

Cambridge InsideOut Episodes 21 and 22 (Nov 26, 2013)

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,elections — Tags: , , , , , — Robert Winters @ 11:25 pm

Cambridge InsideOut Episode 21 with guest Marjorie Decker – Broadcast Nov 26, 2013 at 5:30pm. Hosts: Susana Segat and Robert Winters

Cambridge InsideOut Episode 22 – Analyzing the ballot data – Broadcast Nov 26, 2013 at 6:00pm. Hosts: Susana Segat and Robert Winters

November 20, 2013

Cambridge InsideOut Episodes 19 and 20 (Nov 19, 2013)

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,elections — Tags: , , — Robert Winters @ 10:03 am

Episode 19 (Nov 19, 2013, 5:30pm) of Cambridge InsideOut – Notes on a possible Recount:

Episode 20 (Nov 19, 2013, 6:00pm) of Cambridge InsideOut – On Vacancies and Cambridge Boards & Commissions:

Watch it on CCTV every Tuesday at 5:30pm and 6:00pm. The co-hosts are Susana Segat and Robert Winters.

November 15, 2013

Official 2013 Cambridge Election Results (Nov 15, 2013)

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,City Council,elections,School Committee — Tags: , , , , — Robert Winters @ 7:05 pm
16th Count
Cheung, Leland 1775
Maher, David 1775
Simmons, Denise 1775
Toomey, Tim 1775
Benzan, Dennis 1775
McGovern, Marc 1679
Kelley, Craig 1565
Mazen, Nadeem 1549
Carlone, Dennis 1548
vanBeuzekom, Minka 1535

Nov 15, 6:55pm – The Official results in the City Council election gave the same winners as the Unofficial Results from last week. The only significant change due to the 7 additional ballots was a partial change in the Cheung surplus due to two additional #1 votes for Leland Cheung. The deciding margin at the end of the 16th Round grew to 13 votes separating Dennis Carlone and Minka vanBeuzekom. (Mazen had 1 more than Carlone.) In the final Round, Carlone surpassed Mazen to yield the following winners in the order they reached the election quota (1775).

City Council (in order of election): Leland Cheung, David Maher, Denise Simmons, Tim Toomey, Dennis Benzan, Marc McGovern, Craig Kelley, Dennis Carlone, Nadeem Mazen. [Detailed Report]
Incumbents defeated: Ken Reeves, Minka vanBeuzekom

Nov 16 Update: Minka vanBeuzekom has sent word to her entourage that she will be asking for a Recount.

School Committee (in order of election): Patty Nolan, Fred Fantini, Richard Harding, Kathleen Kelly, Fran Cronin, and Mervan Osborne. [Detailed Report]
Incumbents defeated: None

Official Final Election Results – City Council and School Committee (PDF)

Official Final City Council #1 Vote Distribution by Ward/Precinct (PDF) added Nov 20

Official Final School Committee #1 Vote Distribution by Ward/Precinct (PDF) – added Nov 20

Cambridge 2013 Election Count (in case you missed it)

Just in case you missed the live broadcast of The Count on Tues, Nov 5, the good folks at CCTV have now uploaded it in 3 parts for your viewing pleasure (not to suggest that will be your reaction, of course!). You’ll find the program (hosted by Susana Segat and Robert Winters) at: http://cctvcambridge.org/electioncount2013.

November 13, 2013

Boulder vs. Cincinnati vs. Fractional transfer methods in Cambridge’s PR elections

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,City Council,elections,School Committee — Tags: , , , , , , , — Robert Winters @ 6:23 am

Episode 18 of Cambridge InsideOut – Boulder vs. Cincinnati vs. Fractional transfer methods in Cambridge’s PR elections:

If you would like to look at the demonstrations used in these videos, you’ll find them at http://rwinters.com/experiment/.

Episode 17 of Cambridge InsideOut – A detailed look at the 2013 Cambridge election results and possible recount

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,City Council,School Committee — Tags: , , , , , — Robert Winters @ 6:20 am

A detailed look at the 2013 Cambridge election results and possible recount:

If you would like to look at the demonstrations used in these videos, you’ll find them at http://rwinters.com/experiment/.

November 6, 2013

Unofficial 2013 Cambridge Election Results

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,City Council,elections,School Committee — Tags: , , , — Robert Winters @ 9:53 pm

Unofficial 2013 Cambridge Election Results (Nov 6, 2013)

16th Count
Cheung, Leland 1774
Maher, David 1774
Simmons, Denise 1774
Toomey, Tim 1774
Benzan, Dennis 1774
McGovern, Marc 1682
Kelley, Craig 1560
Carlone, Dennis 1553
Mazen, Nadeem 1546
vanBeuzekom, Minka 1540

#1 VotesNov 6, 8:30pm – The plot thickens in the City Council election. At the end of Tuesday’s ballot count, there were only 51 votes separating the 7th through 10th candidates with only 15 votes separating the 9th place candidate (Nadeem Mazen) and the 10th place candidate (Minka vanBeuzekom) in the decisive 16th Count. When Wednesday’s auxiliary ballots were included, the gap between the 7th through 10th candidates (Kelley, Carlone, Mazen, vanBeuzekom) narrowed to just 20 votes and only 6 votes now separate the 9th place candidate (Nadeem Mazen) and the 10th place candidate (Minka vanBeuzekom) in the decisive 16th Count.

At this point the winners have not changed, but the margin of victory is now shockingly small. There will be one last official count on Friday, November 15 that will include any overseas absentee ballots and provisional ballots. In some recent elections, due to the method of surplus distribution, the addition of just a few extra ballots has caused swings of 20 or more votes in the tabulation.

City Council (in order of election): Leland Cheung, David Maher, Denise Simmons, Tim Toomey, Dennis Benzan, Marc McGovern, Craig Kelley, Dennis Carlone, Nadeem Mazen. [Detailed Report]
Incumbents defeated: Ken Reeves, Minka vanBeuzekom

School Committee (in order of election): Patty Nolan, Fred Fantini, Richard Harding, Kathleen Kelly, Fran Cronin, and Mervan Osborne. [Detailed Report]
Incumbents defeated: None

Unofficial Election Results – City Council and School Committee (PDF) [link corrected]

Preliminary 2013 Cambridge Election Results

Filed under: 2013 Election,Cambridge,City Council,elections — Tags: , , , , — Robert Winters @ 12:39 am

Preliminary 2013 Cambridge Election Results (Nov 5)

Nov 6, post midnight – It was an interesting night at The Count. Susana Segat and I did the live broadcast from the Senior Center and had many guests on the show including many of the City Council and School Committee candidates. In years past I would have been the first person to deliver the results, but tonight we were busy from the beginning of the show at 9:00pm all the way until 11:30pm or later. In case you have not yet heard the preliminary results, here they are:

City Council (in order of election – modified Wednesday to reflect actual order of election in final round): Leland Cheung, David Maher, Dennis Benzan, Tim Toomey, Denise Simmons, Marc McGovern, Craig Kelley, Dennis Carlone, Nadeem Mazen. [Detailed Report]
Incumbents defeated: Ken Reeves, Minka vanBeuzekom

School Committee (in order of election): Patty Nolan, Fred Fantini, Richard Harding, Kathleen Kelly, Fran Cronin, and Mervan Osborne. [Detailed Report]
Incumbents defeated: None

The City Council election quota was 1713 with 17,128 valid ballots counted. Only Leland Cheung exceeded quota with a surplus of 604 ballots.

The School Committee election quota was 2292 with 16,040 valid ballots counted. Three candidates reached quota on the 1st Count: Patty Nolan with a huge surplus of 1502 ballots, Fred Fantini with a surplus of 493 ballots, and Richard Harding with 3 surplus ballots.

It’s important to emphasize that these are the preliminary figures. There are an additional 710 additional City Council ballots that will be inspected and included on Wednesday. Many of these may be blank ballots, but most will likely contain valid choices. In the City Council race, in the deciding round the vote totals for the 7th through 10th place candidates were: Kelley 1517, Carlone 1510, Mazen 1481, and vanBeuzekom 1466. That’s only a 15 vote margin between 9th and 10th place, so it’s possible that the unofficial results on Wednesday could change.

In the School Committee race, there are an additional 1,673 ballots to be inspected and counted on Wednesday. Most of these will likely be blank ballots without valid choices. However, even if there is a substantial number of valid ballots yet to be counted, the margins between candidates are such that it’s essentially impossible for the results to change.

I’ll be at the Senior Center on Wednesday and will post the final, unofficial results when they are known. – RW

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