A very powerful article from The Tech
What A Difference A Year Makes: An Account of One Woman’s Rape and Assault at MIT
It’s powerful. It’s scary. What more is there to say?
Archive for March 2nd, 2004
Doin’ my civic duty
Well, I’ve done my civic duty; today, I voted in the primary election. Now I’m a registered Democrat, at least until the Cambridge Election Commission receives my little postcard asking them to change me back to unenrolled.
Last time, I was a Republican for a few days.
Massachusetts is kinda weird that way. You can be a member of a “major party” (currently Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, or Green-Rainbow; this is basically any party or political designation that’s managed to get 3% in a statewide election or has 1% of registered voters) or you can have a “political designation” (effectively a party too wimpy to get their own primary ballot; minimum requirement, 50 voters), or be one of the “unenrolled”. I believe, but am not certain, that the latter two are effectively the same status for purposes of the primary.
if you’re “unenrolled” (what in most states would be “Independent”, but at one point there was an “Independent Voters Party” designation, and there is currently an “American Independent Party” on the list; incidentally, it’s illegal to use “Independent” alone as a designation per MGL 50-1) you get to pick any “major party” ballot in the primaries. In off-years, this has no effect; in presidential primaries, this enrolls you in that party.
In Cambridge, at least, they will happily give you a postcard that you can use to change back.
Fun statistics, from the Elections Division web site, follow.
Cambridge has:
- 31,561 registered Democrats (55.52% of registered voters);
- 4,047 Republicans (7.12%);
- 296 Libertarians (0.52%);
- 574 Green-Rainbow (1.01%);
- 20,253 unenrolled (35.63%);
- 3 Conservative Party;
- 6 Natural Law Party;
- 1 Constitution Party;
- 3 Reform Party; and
- 10 members of the Socialist Party. (In Cambridge! Who’d have thunk it?)
Oh, and 58 members of the “Interdependent 3rd Party”, whatever that is. We do miss out, though, having no members of the Prohibition Party, the America First Party, or the “Timesizing Not Downsizing” party. (That last has 29 members…statewide.)
