voting

Voters will have a unique opportunity to prepare for the next election this Saturday when the city of Woburn offers drive-up voter registration at City Hall.  The idea is meant to highlight and get the word out that the last day for voter registration is Wed., October 15.

City officials and volunteers with voter registration cards will be in the parking lot of City Hall, 10 Common St., on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to help prospective voters who drive up. Drivers may also park and walk over for assistance.

The drive-in registration is also available for any other Massachusetts Voters as well. Woburn officials will fax the information from out-of-town registrants to the proper community, then follow up by mailing the original information. If you have any questions or concerns about your rights as a voter, check out www.mass-vote.org a statewide, non-partisan agency.

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.

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 »