Two thousand one hundred and fifty-two people voted in Chelsea on September 1.
There are 20,302 registered voters in this city. That is a turnout of just under 11 percent. Nine out of ten registered voters in Chelsea did not cast a ballot in the state primary.
It is worth understanding what that means, because a lot of what gets decided about Chelsea gets decided by very few people.
What Chelsea decided
In the Democratic contest for United States Senate, Chelsea gave Ed Markey 1,353 votes and Seth Moulton 427. Markey won statewide by 65 percent to 35 and faces Republican John Deaton in November.
For Suffolk County District Attorney, Chelsea split three ways: Kevin Hayden 860, Linda Champion 452, Rachael Rollins 365.
For Governor’s Council, incumbent Terrence Kennedy took 1,060 votes here against 495 for his challenger.
On the Republican ballot in Chelsea, Michael Minogue drew 212 and Brian Shortsleeve 94. Minogue won that primary statewide with more than 75 percent, after self-funding $15 million.
The names that were not contested
This is the part that explains the turnout as much as anything.
On Chelsea’s Democratic ballot, the following ran unopposed: U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, State Sen. Sal DiDomenico, State Rep. Judith García, Auditor Diana DiZoglio, Treasurer Deb Goldberg, Secretary of State William Galvin, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell. Governor Maura Healey was unopposed as well.
Chelsea’s own representative and senator faced no primary challenge. Neither did its congresswoman.
When most of the ballot is settled before anyone votes, low turnout is not mysterious. It is rational. But it also means that in the races where Chelsea did have a choice, the outcome was decided by a very small slice of the city.
Kevin Hayden carried Chelsea for District Attorney with 860 votes. That is 4 percent of registered voters here, choosing the prosecutor for all of Suffolk County.
Where Chelsea sits
For anyone unclear which districts we are in, and it is genuinely confusing:
Chelsea is the 11th Suffolk House district, which covers all of Chelsea plus two precincts of Everett Ward 2. Rep. Judith García has held it since January 2023.
In the Senate we are in the Middlesex and Suffolk district, held by Sen. Sal DiDomenico, covering Chelsea, Everett, Charlestown and part of Cambridge. Note that this is not the similarly named Second Suffolk and Middlesex district, which is a different seat entirely.
In Congress we are in the 7th District, held by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, which takes in all of Chelsea and Everett along with most of Boston and Cambridge.
On the Governor’s Council we are in District 6.
Nobody was elected on September 1
A primary picks party nominees. The election is November 3.
That is the one worth marking on a calendar, and not only for the candidates. There are nine statewide ballot questions on the November ballot. They were not on the primary ballot, and ballot questions are where turnout matters most, because there is no incumbency and no party line to fall back on. They pass or fail on who shows up.
A note on poll workers
The city has been recruiting poll workers for November at up to $230 a day, with meals and breaks. Applications go to the City Clerk in Room 209 at City Hall.
If you noticed the Council voting on August 17 to approve a “conflict-of-interest exemption” for city and school employees working the polls and wondered what that was about, it is routine and required by statute.
Massachusetts law makes it a crime for a municipal employee to hold a second paid municipal engagement without an exemption. Working the polls is a second paid engagement. So state law requires the city council to vote the exemption, by name, before a city or school employee can legally be paid to staff a polling place. The State Ethics Commission spells this out in its own guidance on election officials.
The vote exists so that nobody commits a violation. It is housekeeping, and every city and town in Massachusetts does it.
11 percent
Chelsea fought its way out of state receivership, rebuilt its finances, and won an All-America City award for it. The whole argument for local democracy here was that residents could run this place better than a receiver could.
Twenty thousand people are registered to make that argument. Two thousand did.
November 3.