As Election Day approaches all manner of wild and crazy claims are made in a desperate hope to get one group or another to the polls or, as I discussed in previous entries, to entice some voters to stay home. One of the major methods of attack is to cite polls showing one or the… (read more)
The following maps and accompanying commentary summarize my thinking about Election 2016. This entry is less objective than my usual entries but it has not escaped my attention that this election season has not been one characterized by tolerance and objectivity. Map 1 shows the states which putatively are already decided and states that are… (read more)
1. Polls and Pundits People don’t change, populations change. I know this sounds deterministic and seems to preclude the possibility of free will but, as far as voting habits are concerned, I think it is fundamentally true as I will argue in this article. It is a useful mantra I repeat to myself frequently during… (read more)
Better Know A Precinct #2. Ward 14, Precinct 3. As I waited for luggage at the Terminal A baggage carousel in Logan Airport recently, I noticed a promotion on a nearby wall for Boston’s Grove Hall neighborhood. The poster advertises all the great things waiting to be discovered in the neighborhood. Visit Franklin Park Zoo!… (read more)
Better Know A Precinct #1. Ward 6, Precinct 9 Recently fishermen on a boat off the coast near Beverly found a rare blue lobster in one of their traps. According to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, blue lobsters turn up about once for every two million lobsters harvested. The carapace (shell) of… (read more)
Boston has a reputation as a very liberal city. I have been a student of Boston elections for over two decades and my research suggests that the city is not as liberal as its national reputation warrants. Is it possible to determine the relative “liberalness” of Boston? Part of this project is dedicated to analyzing… (read more)
It is almost election day. What? There’s an election? There is an election in Boston every November. Every 4 years of course is the Presidential election, as well as a host of down the ticket races, including Congress. The year following is the quadrennial election for Mayor of Boston as well as for the City… (read more)
