This is a case study for why it’s important to get out to the those polls and vote in every single election.
Boston city officials are still examining votes for the city council’s fourth at-large seat, and candidate and longtime community advocate Alejandra St. Guillen—whose voting day tally came in just 10 votes shy to make her the first openly lesbian and Latinx councilor in city history—is calling for a recount. A recount would include provisional ballots, according to the Boston Globe: “ones cast by people who show up at the polling place but aren’t on the voter list, for example. She said a recount will be the only way to make sure all votes are counted in a race that is so close.”
Reports the Globe:
Julia Mejia, a political newcomer, placed fourth according to the first-pass count of Tuesday’s race, while Alejandra St. Guillen, a community advocate, was so close she shared the same percentage of the vote, 11.18 percent. …
“Every single community in the city of Boston deserves to be counted, and so we are fully prepared for a full citywide recount,” St. Guillen said at a news conference at her Roxbury campaign headquarters, flanked by supporters.
“I’m optimistic we are embarking in a system that is going to show what the voters wanted. Our elections, being fair and transparent, are the bedrock of our democracy, so, whatever the effect, I trust that the voters will have their voices heard.”
Mejia, meanwhile, claimed victory, though she said later Wednesday that a recount could serve as a teaching moment for the electorate that “every vote counts.”
“This is such an amazing opportunity for us; this is a teaching moment for folks to understand how important their voice is,” she said, adding she would be open to a recount: “I’m ready, willing, and able to uphold the process and participate actively as needed,” she said.
Regardless, she said, she committed long ago “to build black and brown political power in low-income neighborhoods,” and so she was looking for closure.
“We’ve won because we’ve done that,” she said.
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