Concord's Grom Possibly Aided by 'Bullet Voting': Report

CONCORD, MA—Bob Grom, who received the most votes for Concord's School Committee during the March 1 elections, may have been aided by a campaign strategy known as "bullet voting."

According to a report by Wicked Local Concord's Henry Schwan, bullet voting is a practice that enourages one-candidate voting when there is an option to vote for other candidates, which then in turn does not contribute to the other candidate's totals. However, Schwan's report cites several election law experts who say that there is nothing illegal or unethical about the practice.

Schwan, who broke the story on Wicked Local Concord's website, reports:

In the race for School Committee, there were three candidates for two open seats, the other two being incumbents Kathi Snook and Johanna Boynton. Grom said after the election that the topic of bullet voting came up during pre-election meetings attended by his supporters, but he did not endorse the strategy.

“I never asked anyone to bullet vote,” Grom said. “It came up at coffees organized by my supporters. I was not paying real close attention. I wasn’t going to make a comment on bullet voting (at the coffees).”

Anne Hayden, Grom's campaign committee chairwoman, said Snook and Boynton were running a combined campaign, known as a "slate," and a one-vote strategy was needed to counteract that.

"It's clear (Boynton and Snook) were running a slate," Hayden said. "We had to figure out how to differentiate Bob. The idea of a one-vote strategy was raised at the coffees."

Hayden said she's not sure that bullet voting played a significant role in the election outcome, citing other factors that may have played a greater role in Grom's success, including his being the first candidate to display campaign signs, mailers to voters, more than a dozen coffees and Grom's frequent hand-shaking appearances with voters at Crosby's Market.

Grom supporter Janet Rothrock said it was her idea to employ bullet voting, because Snook and Boynton ran together through letters to the editor, lawn signs that were positioned together and election-day signs that included both campaign signs on one pole.

“(Snook and Boynton) presented themselves as a slate, a party bloc, and the one-vote strategy was a logical response to a slate,” Rothrock said. “If Snook and Boynton had run a traditional campaign, we wouldn’t have needed to do it.”

Schwan's report can also be viewed in its entirety here.