Election Day Rundown

November 9, 2020 Pace LaVia

All the votes are in — and counted — in Massachusetts. And the good news is, except for one close race, no candidates are contesting the results.

By Friday, according to the Secretary of State’s office, 43.8 percent of all registered voters in Massachusetts had already voted. More than 2.1 million ballots were returned by mail. That’s equal to about 62-percent of all the ballots cast in the 2016 election in the state.

The whole world knows by now that Biden has passed the threshold of Electoral College votes to be deemed the winner of the race for POTUS.

Mass voters filled an open seat, approved an expansion of the state’s “right to repair” law, weighed ranked-choice voting, and decided the fate of some congressional incumbents. And, as many of you know, Senator Markey has been reelected.

Let’s take a look at how this all shook out - including some of the down-ballot races.

POTUS Vote: A Biden Landslide

Massachusetts was “well ahead of the curve on Election Day,” according to MassLive.com. By around 8 p.m. Tuesday, the results of the main event were in and Mass. voters had given the nod to Democrat Joe Biden.

According to The Associated Press, by 10:23 a.m. Wednesday, Biden had garnered more than 2.1 million votes to President Donald Trump’s 1 million-plus — a margin of victory of about 33%.

At that time, several big communities including Brockton, Everett, Fitchburg, New Bedford, Revere, and others had not yet to report their results. However, Biden’s win had already become a mathematical surety.

Biden’s victory was no surprise as only one Republican — Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 — has won in Mass. in half a century.

Here are some statistics according to MassLive.com:

With 1,966 of Massachusetts' 2,173 precincts reporting, amounting to 90.47% of the total ballots cast Trump had only won a couple of dozen communities.
More than 40 of the state’s 351 cities and towns went for Trump.
Trump only won 10 communities by more than 300 votes.
Roughly half of the communities that voted for Trump over Biden were in Hampden and Worcester counties in Western and Central Massachusetts.
Biden’s turnout outperformed Clinton’s 2016 effort in Massachusetts with nearly 110,000 more ballots cast.
Biden flipped several communities that Clinton lost to Trump four years ago, including Athol, Barre, Bourne, Bridgewater, East Longmeadow, Granby, Groveland, Kingston, Lynnfield, Mendon, Pembroke, Saugus, Sutton, Tyngsborough, Uxbridge, and multiple other towns.

Markey Reelected

After beating Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the September primaries, Senator Ed Markey bested Republican challenger Kevin O’Connor. The 74-year-old Markey has served for decades in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

In a live post-election video address, Sen. Markey touched on the hot issues vowing to fight for action on climate change and to work toward racial justice and immigration reform. In the address, Sen. Markey credited the win to young activists and talked about rejecting incremental change in favor of thinking big:

“Massachusetts voted to affirm our movement’s mandate for change, and I am grateful for that. The age of incrementalism is over. The time to be timid is over. Now is our moment to think big, build big, be big.”

Meanwhile, In the 4th Congressional District, the Democratic Newton City Councilor Auchincloss became the newest member of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation by defeating Republican Julie Hall. The open seat was held by Kennedy, who opted not to seek reelection after deciding to challenge Markey.

Congressional Incumbents Reelected

Six Democratic House incumbents defeated Republican and independent challengers:

Rep. Jim McGovern, who represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District, beat GOP challenger Tracy Lovvorn.
Rep. Katherine Clark, 5th Congressional District Rep. defeated Republican Caroline Colarusso.
Rep. Seth Moulton, a former presidential candidate bested GOP challenger John Paul Moran, in the 6th Congressional District.
Rep. William Keating, of the 9th Congressional District, won over Republican Helen Brady and independent Michael Manley.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, 7th Congressional District defeated independent Roy Owens
Rep. Stephen Lynch, 8th Congressional District defeated independent challenger Jonathan Lott.

Two Democratic incumbents ran unopposed:

Rep. Richard Neal, 1st Congressional District
Rep. Lori Trahan, 3rd Congressional District

Harrington Demands Recount in 7th Hamden District

A recount has been demanded in the 7th Hampden District state representative by Republican James “Chip” Harrington after losing to Democrat Jake Oliveira by a narrow margin.

After the Associated Press reported on election eve that Harrington had won by 324 votes, the contest flip-flopped overnight due to a typo in results reporting. An amended count put Oliveira up by 134 votes.

In the end, 11,128 votes went to Oliveira (50.3%) and 10,994 to Harrington (49.7%) narrowly missing the threshold for an automatic recount. Harrington, who is collecting signatures for a recount petition, said in a statement:

“I fully understand the reality of gaining enough votes to overtake him is highly unlikely … but because the clerk of Belchertown has had a consistent lack of attention to detail … I feel it warrants checking her work.”.

The 7th Hampden District encompasses all of Ludlow, narrow strips of Springfield and Chicopee, and three precincts in Belchertown.

Women Set Record for Legislative Seats

The number of women in the state legislature has reached a new high with this election with seven new female state representatives winning seats bringing the total number of women to 62, or 31% of the seats. That includes 12 in the Senate and 50 in the House beating the previous record of 57. No female incumbents lost their reelection bids this year. Lowell Democrat Vanna Howard unseated Rep. David Nangle, in the September primary.

Meanwhile, six female representatives-elect, all Democrats, claimed open seats including:

Jessica Giannino of Revere
Erika Uyterhoeven of Somerville
Patricia Duffy of Holyoke
Brandy Fluker Oakley of Boston
Meg Kilcoyne of Northborough
Sally Kerans of Danvers

According to the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators:

The first women elected to the Massachusetts House were Reps. Sylvia Donaldson of Brockton and Susan Fitzgerald of Jamaica Plain in 1923.
Sen. Sybil Holmes of Brookline was the first woman elected to the state Senate, 14 years later.
There are now 44 Democrats and five Republican Women on Beacon Hill.
The last Republican woman to hold a state Senate seat in Massachusetts was Jo Ann Sprague of Walpole, who opted not to seek reelection in 2004.

“Right To Repair” Law Reinforced

Voters approved expanding the state’s “Right to Repair” law. The legislation gives car owners and auto shops greater access to vehicle maintenance and repair data.

According to repair shops and car parts stores, the measure helps to guarantee car owners access to the repair information. Automakers claim that the measure is a “data grab” by third parties who want to gather personal vehicle information. Tommy Hickey, director of the Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition, called the law a boon for the “modern age of connected cars.”

Ranked Choice Initiative Comes Up Short

Another ballot question that would have changed the way ballots are cast and tallied in future elections was defeated. Had it passed, voters would be able to rank candidates in order of their preference.

“We came up short in this election, and we are obviously deeply disappointed,” campaign manager Cara Brown McCormick said in a statement.

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has been a vocal opponent of ranked-choice voting.

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