September 27, 2005 City Preliminary Election September 7, 2005 (8:00 PM): Last day and hour for Voter Registration for the September 27 City Preliminary Election, mailed items must be postmarked before September 7, 2005. November 8, 2005 City Election October 19, 2005 (8:00 PM): Last day and hour for Voter Registration for the November 8 City Election, mailed registration must be postmarked before October 19, 2005.
Find your local polling place at the link below:http://www.cityofboston.gov/whoami/default.asp
Any problems or questions? The Massachusetts Elections Division can help, click belowhttp://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleidx.htm
Please ask the election department to put
ReplyDelete1) candidates' names on their website and
2) images of specimen ballots when available.
It can be confusing when going to vote not knowing exactly the layout of the ballot text !
By Howie Carr
ReplyDeletehttp://mlin.lib.ma.us
You, too, could land a cushy council seat
Boston Herald (MA) > News
May 15, 2005
By Howie Carr
Are you still looking for that dream job?
It's not too late, friends, but you have to move quickly.
Tuesday is the filing deadline for the Boston City Council
elections.
Here's what you get:
Base salary, $75,000.
Two - count 'em, two - downtown parking spaces.
Another $135,000 for "aides."
As they would say on a TV game show, actual retail value
$250,000. And that doesn't even include however many Red Sox
tickets you can steal, or scalp, or both.
It's a shame Vinny the Animal Ferrara doesn't get out of the
stir until Thursday, because otherwise, Paul Scapicchio, the
incumbent from the North End, might be looking over his shoulder,
in more ways than one.
If the Animal stands up at a candidates' night on Hanover
Street and tells everybody he knows how to twist arms, who could
possibly doubt him?
The current city councilors, as well as the mayor, Mumbles
Menino, a former councilor, know just how sweet their deals are.
That's why they've changed the filing deadlines, to keep you from
trying to grab their parking spaces and their pensions.
It used to be that a Council candidate had until late July to
submit his signatures.
Now, the deadline has been silently moved up to May 24.
But first you have to get down to City Hall, by Tuesday, and
apply to get your nomination papers printed up.
Then you, or any other unemployed layabout, have another week
to round up the signatures.
Unfortunately, members of the city's largest demographic group -
illegal aliens - aren't allowed to sign, or at least they're not
supposed to.
Still, you should be able to get signatures from 200 Americans.
That's the number you need to get on the ballot for one of the
nine district seats.
For an at-large seat, it's 500. (That number used to be 1,500,
but it was just too darned much work.)
You read a lot of hooey about the "new Boston," but the reality
is, most of the at-large candidates are still Irish, just like,
as always, the High Sheriff of Suffolk County and the former
Speaker of the House are in photo finishes with the grand jury.
The more things change. . . .
You ask, what exactly does a city councilor do?
Well, first of all, you know Ch. 24, the cable-access channel in
the city?
It's the other MTV - Mumbles TV.
It's all Mumbles, all the time.
So when Mumbles comes to your neighborhood, you stand behind him
and somberly nod as he promises to reduce the rate of murders in
city parks to a more manageable number.
The original idea behind having nine district councilors was
that they actually would be advocates for their neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, that would have required work, and work is a
four-letter word, especially on the fifth floor at City Hall.
So here's how the councilors operate.
First, unless you're a developer, they won't take your call.
When a constituent phones with a complaint or a request, the
first question the councilor's coatholder asks is, "Have you
called the state rep?"
Then the aide gives the caller the rep's phone number at the
State House.
If the caller says he's already talked to the rep, and nothing
happened, the councilor's aide badmouths the rep and offers the
constituent the phone number of the local state senator.
If that doesn't work, the ultimate "nuclear option" is giving the
voter the number for the mayor's hotline.
Then the aide tells you the councilor will be glad to get back
to you . . . if you need Red Sox tickets.
Howie Carr's radio show can be heard weekday afternoons on
WRKO AM 680, WHYN AM 560, WGAN AM 560, WEIM AM 1280, and
WXTK 95.1 FM.
http://mlin.lib.ma.us
By Howie Carr