Just in case you’re interested in how the rather large number of candidates this year (2017) compares to past Cambridge PR elections, here’s the whole history going back to 1941 (CC for number of City Council candidates and SC for number of School Committee candidates). Any significant write-in candidates are included in the totals.
| Number of candidates in Cambridge municipal elections: 1941-present | ||||||||||||||
| Year | CC | SC | Year | CC | SC | Year | CC | SC | Year | CC | SC | |||
| 1941 | 83 | 28 | 1961 | 23 | 16 | 1981 | 25 | 13 | 2001 | 19 | 10 | |||
| 1943 | 39 | 19 | 1963 | 22 | 17 | 1983 | 16 | 16 | 2003 | 20 | 8 | |||
| 1945 | 37 | 14 | 1965 | 24 | 13 | 1985 | 22 | 9 | 2005 | 18 | 8 | |||
| 1947 | 34 | 18 | 1967 | 20 | 18 | 1987 | 19 | 13 | 2007 | 16 | 9 | |||
| 1949 | 40 | 16 | 1969 | 26 | 14 | 1989 | 28 | 8 | 2009 | 21 | 9 | |||
| 1951 | 27 | 15 | 1971 | 36 | 22 | 1991 | 19 | 12 | 2011 | 18 | 11 | |||
| 1953 | 35 | 18 | 1973 | 34 | 26 | 1993 | 29 | 11 | 2013 | 25 | 9 | |||
| 1955 | 41 | 19 | 1975 | 25 | 16 | 1995 | 19 | 11 | 2015 | 23 | 11 | |||
| 1957 | 35 | 26 | 1977 | 24 | 10 | 1997 | 20 | 8 | 2017 | 26 | 12 | |||
| 1959 | 31 | 21 | 1979 | 23 | 12 | 1999 | 24 | 13 | ||||||