(See pdf below)
Notable observations from last Tuesday’s City Council election:
• Mayor Mehaul O’Leary ran well – from Carlson Park (Precinct No. 7) through Culver Crest (Precinct 31) – but he did not win any precinct outright, not even his own home base.
In the five precincts second-place Meghan Sahli-Wells won, bullet voting was a definite factor. It makes one wonder where she would have finished if not for the boost in bullet voting.
Amazingly, Jim Clarke appeared on 86 percent of the ballots – an Albert Veraesque number – in his home precinct, No. 42. Yet there were no signs of the bullet voting found in other precincts, as the other leading candidates appeared on 68 percent or more of the ballots.
Even being placed first on the ballot did not seem to help former Councilman Scott Malsin. He ran out of the money, fifth, in his bid for voter redemption.
If you think of the six candidates as being voter-equal just before Election Day, each would start out with 16.66 percent of the vote. If you add up the four top finishers, who will be seated next Monday night, it shows most of the voter switch came from Stephen Murray and not Mr. Malsin.
I am not sure what this means. But it most certainly looks analytical.
Mr. O’Leary – 19.1 percent minus 16.66 percent = +2.44 percent.
Mr. Clarke –18.4 percent minus 16.66 percent = +1.74 percent.
Mr. Murray – 6.6% minus 16.66 percent = -10.0 percent.
Andy Weissman – 20.6 percent minus 16.66 percent = +3.93 percent.
Mr. Malsin – 15.8 percent minus 16.66 percent = -0.87 percent.
Ms. Sahli-Wells –19.5 percent minus 16.66 percent = +2.83 percent.
While the other 83 percent of the 24,784 registered voters sat by, on the sidelines, seemingly too busy to stop and exercise their right to vote, a mere 4 percent, fewer than 1,000 partisan voters, had a larger say in who won and who finished second, third or fourth.
Because of the lack of participation by the other 80 percent of voters, it is this 4 percent of partisan bullet voters who actually run our city.
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
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