Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

Press Release – Cambridge Election Commission – June 20, 2011

City of Cambridge

2011 Final Re-Precincting Plan

Every ten years after the Federal Census is complete, ward and precinct boundary lines are re-drawn to reflect changes in the City’s population and to anticipate the needs of the City’s election system for the next decade. This process is separate from the state legislature’s role to re-draw congressional boundaries along with the state senate and representative districts.

In 2000 there were 101,355 people living in Cambridge. By 2010 that number had increased 3.76% to 105,162. Because there has been uneven growth over the years in sections of the city, we were required, by law, to adjust the precinct lines city-wide to ensure that there is an even distribution of population across precincts. The target number was 3,187 people per precinct—the total number of residents divided by the number of precincts (105,162/33=3187). The law allows up to a 5% (+/-) variance for the number of residents per precinct. A goal was set by the Commission to use a smaller variance of 3%.

Although guided by law, the Board also factored into its considerations input from the public and other practicable concerns, such as: minimizing the need for voters to cross major thoroughfares, walking distance to polling locations and also minimizing change to existing precincts lines. The Board has successfully developed and approved a proposed plan that would allow voters in most areas to continue to go to the same polling places to cast their ballots as they have in the past.

The Board was required to vote on the proposed re-precincting by June 15, 2011. On June 15, 2011 the Board met and voted unanimously to approve the proposed re-precincting plan. The proposed re-precincting plan has been submitted to the Secretary of the Commonwealth (SOC). Once received, the SOC will transmit the proposed re-precincting plan to an independent commission consisting of three members known as the Local Election District Review Commission (LEDRC) for review. The LEDRC has the authority to accept or reject the plan.

It should be noted that the re-precincting changes would take effect on December 31, 2011 and therefore in time for the 2012 elections.

Final Proposal showing new Cambridge wards & precincts

A bill was filed (January 2011) in the Massachusetts State Legislature that would permit cities and towns in Massachusetts to adopt Instant Runoff Voting using ranked choice ballots in their local elections. This local option could be adopted for single winner elections and/or multi-seat (at-large) elections such as a city council or school committee.

How do people feel about this enabling legislation? Bear in mind that this proposal would not impose any changes to any local elections. It would simply grant the right to Massachusetts cities and towns to adopt ranked choice voting without having to file a home rule petition for a Special Act of the legislature. More information is available at http://voterchoicema.org. The text of the bill follows.

Voter Choice Local Option Proposal (January 2011)

HD 02026: An Act Providing a Local Option for Instant Runoff Voting in City or Town Elections

SECTION 1: Section 44A of chapter 43 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 7, the words "section forty-four G" and inserting in place thereof the words "sections 44G and 103R".

SECTION 2: Section 77 of chapter 54 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 5, the words "section thirty-three E" and inserting in place thereof the words "sections 33E and 103R".

SECTION 3: Chapter 54 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 103Q the following section:-

Section 103R. Instant Runoff Voting in city or town elections

(a) Notwithstanding any other general or special law to the contrary, any city or town may conduct a local election using instant runoff voting in which voters rank the candidates for an office in order of preference. Instant runoff voting elections may be used for single-winner elections, such as Mayor, or for elections that elect multiple candidates to office, such as city council. Instant runoff voting elections are tabulated in rounds using the "single transferable vote" method. Winning thresholds shall be calculated based on the number of countable votes and the number of seats to be filled. General provisions for either single-winner elections or multiple-winner elections shall be specified by ordinance, provided that a person’s lower ranked choices shall not harm the likelihood of their higher ranked choices becoming elected. Such ordinances shall be enacted by the municipality’s legislative body, be it a city council, board of alderman, board of selectmen, or town meeting, and the body shall request the input of the community’s registrars of voters and town clerk or city election commissioners. The ordinance shall specify at a minimum the method of calculating winning thresholds, how candidates with the fewest votes shall be eliminated before a subsequent round of the tally, how votes for eliminated candidates shall be transferred to the voter’s next valid choice, how ties shall be dealt with, how ballots that skip a ranking or otherwise are mismarked shall be counted, and in the case of multi-seat contests, how surplus votes above the winning threshold for a candidate shall be transferred to alternate choices. Preliminary elections shall not be held in cities and towns using instant runoff voting for all offices that would otherwise require preliminary elections.

(b) A voting method authorized by this section may be adopted by any of the following:

(1) By approval of a ballot measure submitted to the voters by the governing body of the city or town at a regular or special election.

(2) By initiative ordinance or charter amendment.

(c) Any city or town using a instant runoff voting method shall conduct a voter education and outreach campaign to familiarize voters with ranked voting.

(d) The instant runoff voting ballot shall allow voters to rank as many choices as there are candidates. In the event that the voting equipment cannot feasibly accommodate a number of rankings on the ballot equal to the number of candidates, town registrars of voters or city election commissioners may limit the number of choices a voter may rank to the maximum number allowed by the equipment. If there are three or more candidates, this limit shall never be less than three.

(e) The ballot shall not interfere with a voter’s ability to rank at least one write-in candidate. For the purposes of this section, a mark for an unqualified write-in candidate shall not be considered a mark for a candidate.

(f) After four years, a city or town which has adopted instant runoff voting may choose to return to its prior voting method by any of the following:

(1) By approval of a ballot measure submitted to the voters by the governing body of the city or town at a regular or special election.

(2) By an initiative ordinance or charter amendment.

SECTION 4: This act shall take effect upon its passage.

PROPOSED VOTING PRECINCTS AVAILABLE ONLINE

The Board of Election Commissioners met on May 24th to discuss the suggestions made at that meeting and the May 19th public hearings. After reviewing many suggestions, the Commissioners are now considering the following two maps:

May 31st Proposed Scenario 1 (with current precinct overlay in red)

May 31st Proposed Scenario 2 (with current precinct overlay in red)

The Commissioners will vote on a final map at their meeting scheduled for May 31, 2011 at 5:30pm.

In many areas of the City, voters would continue to go to the same polling places to cast their ballots as they have in the past. It should be noted that the re-precincting changes would not take effect until the 2012 elections.

Questions or comments can be sent to elections2@cambridgema.gov.

Other maps of interest:

Population by Census Block

The current map with 11 wards and 33 precincts

The May 19th proposed map with 11 wards and 33 precincts

The May 19th proposed map with the present precinct overlay in red

Editor’s Note: Each of the proposed new maps has only minimal changes from the current map. The main changes are in East Cambridge where above-average population growth over the last decade requires that precincts be adjusted so that all 33 precincts in the city have approximately equal population.