McCain actually won three Boston precincts

By adamg - 11/12/08 - 9:21 am

Two precincts in South Boston and one in Dorchester, according to Matt O'Malley, who provides some interesting Boston numbers from this year's election. Overall, of course, Obama won big in Boston - O'Malley says one Roxbury precinct went for Obama by a 99.5 - 0.5 margin.

Bonus fun fact: There is a Harbor Islands precinct, with nine registered voters, none of whom bothered to vote.

Comments

Where do people live on the harbor islands?

By Ron Newman - 11/12/08 - 10:33 am

I didn't know there were any residences there. Isn't it all park land?

The polling place for that precinct is not on any of the islands, but rather at Harbor Point, combined with another precinct's polling place.

At least one of the islands

By NotWhitey - 11/12/08 - 10:56 am

At least one of the islands has cottages which were grandfathered in when the park was created. As people die off, the park department is gradually letting the houses rot so that they can tear them down. Your tax dollars at work.

Correction on Cottages

By SwirlyGrrl - 11/12/08 - 11:19 am

As people die off, the park department is gradually letting the houses rot so that they can tear them down because they don't have any sewer or water hookups and the island cannot safely sustain septic systems and doesn't have any fresh water.

Your tax dollars ~~at work~~ not being wasted on a few vacation properties.

That's Peddocks Island

By Neal - 11/12/08 - 11:23 am

And it is within the Town of Hull.

Facilities People?

By SwirlyGrrl - 11/12/08 - 11:52 am

Are these nine voters living on the islands to patrol and care for the properties?

Maybe ACORN registered the dog

By Kaz - 11/12/08 - 1:01 pm

There's an old golden retriever, Max, on Spectacle Island that's a permanent resident. Maybe he registered with ACORN.

One down, 8 to go.

But more seriously, there's Coast Guard staff living on Little Brewster where they have the last Coast Guard operated lighthouse in the US. It's possible that any staff there might be registered. Also, Thompson Island is privately owned and may have permanent staff for the troubled youth center and schools operated on the island.

I could imagine that some of the previous residents of the lighthouse might not have been purged from the rolls too.

Peddocks Island

By AJ (not verified) - 11/17/08 - 12:08 am

There are still a few residences on Peddocks. I was camping out there in 1989 when a resident walked by and it turned out to be a kid I graduated highschool with the year before whose family owned a cottage there. Almost all the residents were old-school Portuguese families maintaining old family properties. I remember that these properties were under deed restriction to only be passed on to family and not sold.

Somerville election results

By Ron Newman - 11/12/08 - 11:16 am

By ward and by precinct.

This was a real laugher of an election, with McCain getting nowhere near Obama in any part of Somerville. My precinct, for example, had Obama 1807 (84.7%), McCain 259 (12.3%)

We had no contested races on the ballot beyond President and US Senator.

Watertown

By Suldog - 11/12/08 - 11:39 am

http://www.watertown-ma.gov/DocumentView.asp?DID=1430

Apparently, there are 55 other people in Watertown who voted for Bob Barr. We'll have to get together for a cookout or something.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

Cookout?

By SwirlyGrrl - 11/12/08 - 11:53 am

Wouldn't a Barr-BQ be more like it?

Hah! That's A Gas!

By Suldog - 11/12/08 - 2:10 pm

When I saw it was you making a comment on this political thread, I thought I was going to have to get all up in your grill, or at least drag you over the coals a bit. Turns out to be no flame at all.

OK, I'd better stop before I become a propane in the ass.