2012 elections

Steve was in the State House yesterday for the quadrennial convening of our electors. To nobody's surprise, Obama and Biden won - after the grandchildren of the older electors led them and legislators in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Copyright Steve. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

City councilors this morning began a formal discussion on how to allow the medical-marijuana dispensaries approved by voters last month while letting neighborhoods have a say on specific locations.

The law approved by voters would allow up to five dispensaries in a county.

City Councilor Bill Linehan, who represents South Boston and the South End, said he understands the need for medical marijuana and that he understands medical-marijuana use doesn't lead to substance abuse, but said his district already suffers crime and other problems from methadone clinics - and already has more than its fair share of other medical facilities:

City Councilor Rob Consalvo (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) says he sympathizes with people with the sort of debilitating illnesses who would require medical marijuana, but he doesn't want the dispensaries approved by voters to be allowed to set up shop just anywhere.

Consalvo on Wednesday asks the City Council to approve a hearing to start figuring out how to limit where dispensaries can open.

The City Council sympathizes with those individuals suffering from debilitating medical conditions; however, the City of Boston has the responsibility to ensure that the Zoning Code be updated to ensure that dispensaries be zoned and located in the most appropriate way in our neighborhoods.

Consalvo's proposed hearing would seek input from, among others, the BRA, Boston Police, and state and city public-health departments on siting marijuana sales outlets.

City Councilor Bill Linehan says some of his constituents stood in line for three or even four hours on Election Day, and he's not having it.

On Wednesday, the council considers his request for a hearing to figure out how to prevent the long lines he said became common in his district. In his request, Linehan says five precincts have 4,000 voters each - double the citywide average and nine times the size of the city's smallest precinct.

Linehan says he heard from one voter who got in line to vote at 6 p.m. and didn't finally cast his ballot until 10 p.m.

Richard Vetstein reports landlords are smokin' mad because the law passed by voters this week lets people with medical conditions grow a two-month supply of weed at home if they can't get to one of those dispensaries the law allows. Homegrown pot could mean mold, water damage, fires from improperly wired grow lights and even an increased risk of burglaries from thieves looking for a quick hit. And then there are the feds:

Bay State landlords are also concerned about running afoul of federal drug laws as marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law. Landlords are begging Beacon Hill lawmakers to give them the right to refuse to rent to tenants who grow pot for medical use over fears their property could be seized. As reported in the Boston Herald, commercial and residential landlords are right to worry, drug forfeiture attorneys say, because landlords can be charged as conspirators if their tenants are targeted by the feds.

The Dorchester Reporter reports Obama won Mattapan 10,451 to 209.

According to city tallies, Obama's highest percentage came in Ward 14, precinct 3 (along the east side of Blue Hill Avenue on either side of Seaver), where he got 99.1% of the vote.

Obama lost just two precincts in the entire city - Ward 6, precinct 9 and Ward 7, Precinct 1, both near Castle Island in South Boston.

Yeah, losing hurts and sometimes all you can do is lash out at the people around you. Adults can make a learning experience of it, though, Holly.

The Globe has the results for the two questions - and that third one about car repair.

You can call her Senator Warren now.

As more votes come in, WHDH is calling Elizabeth Warren the winner over incumbent Scott Brown. Among other things, Warren becomes the state's first woman senator.

While statewide the race was close, in Boston, city results show Warren winning 65-35.

Mark Leccese: "Tough night for the Boston Herald. And their pollster."

Next up: Secretary of State John Kerry?

H/t Andrea Garvey for the headline.

Conley School in Roslindale around 7:30 a.m.

Polls opened in Boston this morning with long lines of waiting voters. What are you seeing when you vote? Add a comment.

J.L. Bell provides the historical background.

Wendell Willkie campaigns in Quincy in 1940.

West Roxbury celebrates tomorrow today with its traditional Truman Rally in the municipal parking lot at Centre and Hastings streets (right across from the mural of James Michael Curley and Dapper O'Neil).

State Rep. Ed Coppinger and City Councilor Matt O'Malley worked with the Harry S Truman Society to revive the longstanding West Roxbury tradition, in which candidates from both parties get one last chance to speak their piece before voters speak theirs. Elizabeth Warren is confirmed; Scott Brown isn't.

The rally starts at 7 p.m.

Photo from the BPL's Leslie Jones collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Holliston/Hopkinton Patch reports a member of the Holliston Democratic Town Committee got a call today reminding him to vote for Obama and Warren - on Wednesday, because Sandy forced a delay in the election. Of course, it hasn't.

Remember when the Governor of the State He Dare Not Name went on tour two years into his term as governor of some vague state up in the Northeast and kept complaining about how awful that state was? Boston Daily rewrites a section of Romney's book.

Should be a fun time on Commercial Street, especially if they're met by these guys.

Massachusetts sure came up a lot in the debate tonight. Some history to go with the references:

When Romney got his binder full of women (and why he had nothing to do with it).

When Romney got tough on a coal plant in Salem.

When Romney opposed a wind project.

When Romney signed a permanent ban on assault weapons.

Why Romney balanced the state budget: Under the state constitution, he had to (even Mike Dukakis balanced the budget!).

Slate: Why Mitt Romney's Massachusetts Education Plan Backfired.

A roving UHub photographer captured the scene in Dudley Square yesterday.

The Herald reports the Brown campaign is paying homeless men about $8 an hour to act like Brown has supporters in Roxbury by holding Brown signs and wearing shirts proclaiming them "Obama supporters for Brown."

The Globe reports on Brown's request to the feds to back off from the way it regulates compounding pharmacies - such as the one in Framingham that's now responsible for more than a dozen deaths.

David Gregory doesn't seem to realize he's not a candidate. He spent the first 15 minutes on the "character" issues that everybody in Massachusetts already is sick to death of. He decided that immigration is a more important issue than jobs. His toupee is too obvious.

Blue Mass. Group posted this video of Scott Brown staffers doing oh-no-not-at-all-racist war cries and tomahawk chops outside the Eire Pub in Dorchester the other day. And, of course, this being Boston, well, no rally is complete without a "Yankees suck!" chant.

And right on Centre Street, no less, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports.

Jump in with your thoughts.

Roving UHub photographer Gretchen Van Ness reports this morning from Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, where she saw:

A Toyota Camry with a very wet stuffed dog lashed to the roof wearing a t-shirt that says "Shame Us." Don't know who the owner is, but there are plenty of crazy dog people in JP! (I'm one of them, I have to admit).

David Bernstein is keeping a list.

Huffington Post reports the Mass. GOP barred a Globe reporter from a vote last night on whether to adopt a state platform that would include a call for ban on all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest, and which would come out against same-sex marriage.

Some Republican muscle is quoted as saying he strongarmed the Globie out of the vote to make sure a Worcester Telegram and Gazette reporter had a fair shake at covering the debate, in what must have been a telephone booth or cardboard box in which there just wasn't enough room for the media horde of, um, two reporters. As these things so often do nowadays, the debate moved onto Twitter, where the Republican bouncer said the Globe reporter (and the Phoenix's David Bernstein) should just go work for Elizabeth Warren.

In the end, it seems, our little Party of Lincoln tabled the whole thing.