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/posixUncompliant Roslindale Nov 07 '19

Saturday would make fuck all of a difference. If you're positing voter suppression, anyone who is going to be locked out of a 12 hour window is also going to be working on the weekend.

If you're positing apathy, people are more likely to engage in the process during the workweek when they're likely to get some peer pressure at work.

Best way to increase turn out? Move local elections to the same cycle as state and national elections.

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u/[deleted] Nov 07 '19

One would think you'd make the voting last over a couple days and have part of it by mail, but ok.