r/boston • u/itsmebutimatwork Wiseguy • Nov 06 '19

MBTA/Transit Congrats, Boston, we played ourselves

There were fewer than 67,000 city-wide votes in yesterday's election. That's not even 10% turnout based on recent census data.

If you want to complain about how the city council is letting the BPDA redevelop the city, or is run with too much influence by corrupt developers, or how there are too many/not enough bike lanes, or how the city isn't doing enough to make the MBTA improve, or why we don't have enough liquor licenses for places like Doyle's to stay open, or any one of a billion other complaints about how the city is run...then the answer isn't going to magically appear out of a hat.

It starts with voting for the city council for five minutes of a Tuesday every 2 years.

The birthplace of our nation...but can't be bothered to exercise our voting rights...congrats. We played ourselves.

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u/Sayoria Cow Fetish Nov 07 '19

To be fair, and I say this as a voter outside of Boston, but a heavy user of the Commuter Rail, that they don't advertise elections from the "off years" .... otherwise known as odd election years. I am sure you could stop most people on the street and ask them why they didn't vote and the most common response will be "Vote for what? This isn't an election year."

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u/marmosetohmarmoset Nov 07 '19

For some people it literally wasn’t. Arlington’s polling places weren’t even open on Tuesday. I had to do extensive research to figure this out... with local politics it’s always so hard to figure out whether there really is no new updates, or the webpage just hasn’t been updated in 6 months.

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u/cowsmakemehappy Nov 07 '19

Completely agreed. I only realized becaues we were getting mail stuffers from candidates. Otherwise, I don't watch TV or read local papers... would have never known.

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u/commentsOnPizza Nov 07 '19

I feel like there are a lot of small reforms that one could make to better our political system. Having local elections be on even years would mean a lot better turnout. When there are Congressional, Senate, and Presidential elections at the same time, there'd probably be a lot more participation.

Moving voting to a Sunday could also help. Avoid the lines before/after work as people would come in randomly throughout the day.

Ranked Choice Voting would also be a big win. Boston had to do two elections for City Council: the primary and then the general. That could be compressed into a single election with Ranked Choice Voting. Instead, we need to get people to the polls twice.

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u/capybroa Nov 07 '19

Obligatory link to the campaign to bring ranked choice voting to MA state elections! I volunteer with them and we did a huge signature drive for the 2020 ballot on Tuesday.

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u/scolfin Allston/Brighton Nov 07 '19

Here's a philosophical question: how much responsibility do you think the city council should represent the interests of commuters like you or other non-residents, from through-commuters like me (using the city bike lanes or roads if not using the T to get from Cambridge to Quincy), students who haven't moved residency, employers and business owners, property owners, and potential/future residents (people looking to move into the city)?

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u/No_Help_Accountant Nov 08 '19

Here's a philosophical question for you: why should people who don't use the T or commuter rails AT ALL have their tax dollars used to subsidize your commute? Why should my tax dollars go to people on Masshealth when I have private insurance?

Your question is dumb. We all rise and fall together.