Newton Elections: Voters To Narrow Mayoral Field Today

NEWTON, MA — It's whirred by quick. Tuesday, Sept. 12 is Election Day in Newton. Voters across the city will go to the polls and will narrow the candidates for the next mayor of the city down from seven to two. Voters will vote for just one person on the list. The top two finishers will then show up on the final ballot in November.

"It's the largest field we've seen in recent history," said David Olson, Newton city clerk, whose office is in charge of elections in the city.

Election turnout varies from around 10 percent to 20 percent of the some 56,000 registered voters based on who is running, he said. But with the number of candidates running, Olson said his office hopes this year's preliminary will lean toward the 20 percent.

"We've already seen some absentee ballots come back," he said.

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Why are there preliminaries?
For any race that there ends up more than twice the number of candidates to fill a seat the city has in its charter a requirement to hold a preliminary election to narrow the field to just twice the number.

"That's why we're trying to get that seven down to two in the mayoral election. None of the other races exceeded the twice number," said Olson, referring to the councilor seats up for election, including the at-large councilor seats. "Otherwise they'd be on the ballot, too."

What time will we know the results?
The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. The clerk's office expects to start getting the voting data back around 8:20 p.m. and they'll start going through it around 8: 30 p.m.

They'll start updating the city website beginning as soon as 9 p.m. as soon as they start processing the data, on a rolling basis. Patch will also post data as it becomes available HERE.

Who's running, again?

There are seven candidates vying to be the next mayor of Newton. The field includes a 30-something newcomer to politics, Eli Katzoff. It also includes Scott Lennon, who has essentially been in politics since he decided as a teen he wanted to become Newton's mayor. The field includes two women, Amy Sangiolo who isn't afraid to push others to get what she thinks is right, and Ruthanne Fuller who says she's running because she loves Newton. There's Republican and a bar-certified attorney, life long Newton resident Al Cecchinelli and writer Richard Saunders and Geoffrey Woodward who is a grant writer for the department of health and human services.

Wait, I've really been under a rock, where's Mayor Setti Warren going?

He's running for governor.

Where do I vote in the City of Newton?

Your voting location is determined by your precinct. Click this link to see your Ward, Precinct and Voting location.

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Who Is Running For Newton Mayor? 7 In The Race

Image at top composite from this YouTube Video