August 27, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. is the last day to register to vote and change party enrollment for the State Primary to be held on September 16, 2008. For more information, contact the Office of the City Clerk at (781) 897-5850 or go to the following link for more information. Further voting Information can be found by clicking here.

Woburn Public Media Center is running live broadcasts of the election results as the come into City Hall.  At this point, I've heard the results for the contested City Council seats as follows:  Mike Raymond has won Ward 6; incumbents Darlene Mercer Bruen and Ray Drapeau have been re-elected to their ward alderman positions, as have Aldermen at-large Joanna Gonsalves and Paul Denaro.  Aldermen Gately, Galvin, and Dwyer have been re-elected.  Haven't heard anything about Ward 1 or School Committee yet...stay tuned!

City Clerk Bill Campbell is known to be a good prognosticator in terms of predicting voter turnout, and he estimates about 32% will vote today. It's drizzly, the Mayoral race is not contested, and local elections haven't gotten quite as much coverage as the triumphs of our local sporting teams. So if anything, one might think Bill's estimate is on the high side. But here's to hoping that more than 1/3 of us will exercise our basic right to vote today.

At first I planned to voting after work. But we were up early today, having not quite adjusted to the time change fully in our house, and I thought it would be fun to take my two year old to the polls with me on the way to daycare. It was a great excuse to expose him to two important things--voting and school! I did try to explain voting to him a bit, though he was more interested in watching kids eat their breakfast in the school gym/cafeteria. Nonetheless, I hope this early exposure to the process will remain with him some rainy election day when he's older, and he'll make the effort to take an extra 15 minutes to participate in our democracy.

Sure, there are reasons not to vote. But today as I walked past candidates standing in the rain, I was reminded of the hard work and risk they take to participate as candidates. I was reminded of those that have served our country--be it in the military or the civil rights movement--to ensure that we all have the right to vote. Fifteen minutes on a rainy day is not much of a sacrifice by comparison.

Click here to find out where to vote today.  read more »

The City’s Preliminary Election is this coming Tuesday, September 18. The final Election will be Tuesday, November 6. SCI has launched an Elections Blog with a list of certified candidates; a link to where to vote; and links to relevant news stories on the elections from the local papers. All candidates are encouraged to register for the site, as in the coming weeks site users will be asked to submit their questions for the candidates online. Click here to visit the blog!  Please note that Ward 6 and 7 are the only Wards with primaries on Tuesday.  read more »

Description:
Here is a list of certified candidates for this year's elections. The City's Preliminary Election will be Tuesday, September 18. The final Election will be Tuesday, November 6.
Note: "i" denotes incumbent
Mayori-Thomas McLaughlin
Alderman at-large Joseph Demersi-Paul Denaroi-Joanna Gonsalves
Ward 1i-Charles DohertyAlfio Malone
Ward 2i-Richard Gately
Ward 3i-Scott Galvin
Ward 4 i-James Dwyer
Ward 5Sarkis Chiniani-Darlene Mercer-Bruen
Ward 6John CovielloDavid EdmondsDonald GalanteAnthony FiorelloMichael Raymond
Ward 7i-Raymond DrapeauDaniel RileyCharles Viola
School Committeei-Patricia Chisholmi-Joseph CrowleyLaurel Francoeuri-Christopher Kisieli-Denis Russelli-John Wells