The Final Count on Fair & Equal
All the absentee ballots from the November 8 election have now been counted, and we now have the final word on the overwhelming success of Proposition One, the proposition to adopt wards of equal population and do away with the weighted vote in the Common Council. The chart below shows how votes were cast in each of the existing wards.
With both ballots cast at the polls and absentee ballots, Proposition One passed in every ward, but the margins were greater in absentee ballots. Eighty-two percent of the voters who submitted absentee ballots voted yes on Proposition One as compared with 67.5 percent who voted yes on Proposition One at the polls.
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With the absentees counted, 10 more than half of the 236 voters in the 4th Ward voted for an equal share of power in the City legislature. (The 4th is tied for powerlessness with the 1st Ward.)
ReplyDeleteBefore the absentee ballots were included, less than half in the 4th Ward wanted their own interests wholly represented in the Common Council.
The new count is good for the 4th Ward, because it's so much less bizarre.
Unheimlich, the count is indeed good for the 4th and good for everyone in Hudson. But I ask you to take a second look at the numbers. The 4th ward voted 65% in favor, a clear majority, without the absentees, and 68% including the absentees. It was never as close as you suggest.
DeleteRight you are, Peter. An embarrassing reminder not to do math in my head (it makes for bizarre results).
DeleteThanks for everything that you and the rest of the F&E team did. It will usher in a new age for Hudson. There will be free calculators for everyone!
Interesting that 12.3% of total votes cast were absentee. In the fourth ward, the absentee ballots were 21.5%. 51% of those absentees voted in favor or yes for the proposition.
ReplyDeleteThe Columbia County BOE has not yet posted absentee results yet so I can tell if this is a normal range or not
The % of absentees who voted for Prop 1 in the 4th ward was 81% not 51%. That was a typo.
ReplyDeleteYes, Ward 4 is an interesting anomaly in several ways. In my view, back when, I believed that Ward 4 was where Prop 1 would be won or lost. Thus rather intensive efforts were made in that ward. It turned out, that Prop 1 had appeal across the city. At least some of that I think was due to the Fair and Equal campaign, that was run mostly by folks far more capable than I in that department. And for that, I can only give my heartfelt thanks.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of talent in this city just waiting to be tapped on many fronts. Who knew? :)
Congratulations to all involved on a job well done. The results sent a clear message to those who derided the effort at every turn: The City wants fairness, and fairness it shall have.
ReplyDeleteOne more little snippet of data. The undervote for Prop 1 (the number of Prop 1 votes cast as compared to the total ballots cast (some of which left Prop 1 blank), was almost exactly 10%. Based on ballot initiatives elsewhere in Columbia County in the recent past, my "top of the bell curve" prediction was an 8% undervote for Prop 1, with a range of from 5% to 15% (yes, not a normally shaped bell curve). So the undervote number, as well as the total votes cast number for that matter, was not a surprise to me, unlike the split in the vote between the yeses and the noes, which was a surprise, a most delightful and wonderful surprise. :)
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