These 5 MA Communities Voted 'No' On Question 3

Like nearly all of the major races in Massachusetts, there wasn't much drama to the three statewide ballot questions last Tuesday night.

The closest margin came in Question 3, which asked voters to affirm or repeal a law prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations. Even then, the question passed by more than a 2 to 1 margin, with 1.78 million voting in 'Yes' and 846,804 voting 'No.'

The final result affirmed the polls leading up to the election. But it didn't unanimously pass across all municipalities. Five went against the grain, narrowly voting 'No.'

>>>Related: Strong Yes Vote On MA Trans Protections Buoys LGBTQ Community

Four of the communities have common threads - small towns where Donald Trump got more than half the vote in the 2016 presidential election. The fifth is one of Massachusetts' largest cities, one with a massive immigrant population and that has been a punching bag for Trump in the past.

In each of the communities, the margin was razor thin.

Oakham, Montgomery, and Blandford are three tiny Western Mass. towns that saw a total of 1,972 votes. The difference on Question 3 in those towns was 13, 11, and 17 votes, respectively.

Acushnet, a town of some 10,000 people just north of New Bedford, had only a 0.8 percent difference in the results.

And then there's Lawrence. The community has little in common with the others that voted 'No.' It's the only city among them, and it boasts 80,000 residents - about 10 times more than Oakham, Montgomery, and Blandford combined.

It's also a heavily immigrant community. More than 77 percent of the residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2016 Census.

So why was Lawrence part of the small group of communities who voted "No"?

"The question posed is an interesting one," City Clerk William Maloney said. He cited his position in refusing to say whether there was any indication of the vote shaking out as it did, saying doing so "would be speculative at best and subjective at worse."

The Massachusetts Family Institute, which supported and donated to the group sponsoring the ballot question, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In a statement, MFI President Andrew Beckwith lamented the overwhelming Question 3 result.

"Despite a valiant effort, the Keep MA Safe / No on 3 campaign simply could not overcome being outspent more than ten to one, an openly hostile media, and the political headwinds of 2018," he said.

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