Massachusetts

MASSACHUSETTS

12 Electoral Votes

Population
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Secretary of the Commonwealth)
Total Population, July 1, 2008 est.              6,497,967
Total Registration, Oct. 15, 2008              4,220,488
Dem. 1,559,464 (36.95%)   Rep. 490,259 (11.62%) Unenrolled 2,141,878 (50.75%)   Grn-Rbw 6,728 WF 5,534 More 16,625
Massachusetts has: 43 cities and 308 towns; 14 counties.
Largest counties: Middlesex, Worcester, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk. >
Largest cities: Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell. >

Government
Governor: Deval Patrick (D) elected Nov. 2006.
State Legislature: The General Court of the Commonwealth of Mass. House: 160 seats Senate: 40 seats
Local: Communities NACO Counties
U.S. House: 10D - 1. J.Olver (D) | 2. R.Neal (D) | 3. J.McGovern (D) | 4. B.Frank (D) | 5. N.Tsongas (D) | 6. J.Tierney (D) | 7. E.Markey (D) | 8. M.Capuano (D) | S.Lynch (D) | 10. W.Delahunt (D).
U.S. Senate: John Kerry (D) first elected 1984, up for re-election in 2008, Edward M. Kennedy (D) first elected 1962, re-elected in 2006.

2008
update
U.S. Senate: Sen. John Kerry (D) won a fifth term, defeating Jack Beatty (R) by more than thirty percentage points, while Bob Underwood (L) attracted about 3% of the vote.
U.S. House: All ten congressmen, all Democrats, were re-elected by more than two-to-one margins; six had no major party opponent. MORE

Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Secretary of the Commonwealth

Constitution Party of MA
Green Rainbow Party
Libertarian Party of MA
MA Democratic Party
MA Republican Party

Boston Globe
Boston Herald
Newspapers
TV, Radio

Politics1-MA

The Bay State

General Election -- Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Voting Eligible Population*: 4,652,749.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 66.2%.

Total Registration: 4,220,488.

Official Results >
Baldwin/Castle (Const.)	4,971	(0.16)
Barr/Root (Lib.)	13,189	(0.43)
McCain/Palin (Rep.)	1,108,854	(35.99)
McKinney/Clemente (Grn. Rainbow)	6,550	(0.21)
Nader/Gonzalez (Ind.)	28,841	(0.94)
+Obama/Biden (Dem.)	1,904,097	(61.80)
All others	14,483	(0.47)
Total........3,080,985

Including 22,010 blanks, 3,102,995 total votes were cast.

2008 Overview
The Obama-Biden ticket carried the Bay State with a plurality of 795,243 votes (25.81 percentage points). Independent candidate Ralph Nader provided one of the highlights of the Massachusetts campaign with a marathon day of speeches on Oct. 25. The only appearances by the major party principals were for fundraisers: John McCain in Boston on June 12, Barack Obama in Boston on Aug. 4, and Joe Biden in Boston and Holyoke on Sept. 10.
Obama/Allies | McCain/Allies | Nader

[Primary Election: Sept. 16, 2008]

Presidential Preference Primary -- Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Democrats
121 Delegates (93 Pledged, 28 Unpledged) and 16 Alternates.
2.99% of the 4,049 Delegate Votes.

Clinton | Obama
former: Biden | Edwards | Richardson - endorsed by Matthew Albanese, Bridgewater Selectman (announced Oct. 3, 2007)

Sen. John Kerry (D) was seen as a possible candidate but ruled out a run on
Jan. 24, 2007. >

Official Results

John Edwards
20,101

1.60%

+Hillary Clinton
705,185

56.01%

Joe Biden
3,216

0.26%

Chris Dodd
1,120

0.09%

Mike Gravel
1,463

0.12%

Barack Obama
511,680

40.64%

Dennis Kucinich
2,992

0.24%

Bill Richardson
1,846

0.15%

No Preference
8,041

0.64%

All Others
3,279

0.26%

Total (w/o blanks)
1,258,923

Blanks 4,841

Republicans
43 Delegates: 3 RNC; 10 at-large; 30 by CD (3 x 10 CDs).
1.81% of the 2,380 Delegates.

Delegate allocation: At-large proportional with 15% threshold; CD proportional with 15% threshold.

Huckabee | McCain | Romney
Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R)'s national campaign headquarters is in Boston >.
former: Giuliani

Official Results

John McCain
204,799

40.91%

Fred Thompson
916

0.18%

Tom Tancredo
153

0.03%

Duncan Hunter
258

0.05%

Mike Huckabee
19,103

3.82%

+Mitt Romney
255,892

51.12%

Ron Paul
13,251

2.65%

Rudy Giuliani
2,707

0.54%

No Preference
1,959

0.39%

All Others
1,532

0.31%

Total (w/o blanks)
500,550

Blanks 1,447

Green-Rainbow
Jared Ball 42, Ralph Nader 744, Elaine Brown 38, Kat Swift 60, Cynthia McKinney 474, Kent Mesplay 39, No Preference 194, All Other 273, Blank 77; Total 1,941

Ballot Access
From the Secretary of the Commonwealth:

There are three ways for the names of presidential candidates to be placed on the presidential primary ballot:

-Candidates may file nomination papers with at least 2,500 certified signatures. For primary ballot placement, signatures of at least 2,500 voters must be certified by local election officials and subsequently filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.*
-The Secretary of the Commonwealth may place candidates on the ballot who have been generally advocated or recognized in the national news media.
-The chairperson of each party’s state committee may designate names to be listed.

Registration: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 is the last day to register to vote or to change party enrollment for the February 5 primary.

Setting the Primary Date:
Secretary of State William Galvin led a late push to move the 2008 presidential primary date from March 4 to February 5 in an effort to increase the Commonwealth's influence in the elections. The measure made quick progress through the General Court. On Nov. 14, 2007 the Joint Committee on Election Laws reported out favorably legislation to change the date in 2008. The bill passed both Houses the week of Nov. 19, 2007, and Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed it into law on Nov. 26, 2007.

General Election -- Tuesday November 2, 2004

Voting Eligible Population: 4,533,859.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 64.2%.

Registration: Dem. 1,526,711 (37.25%) Rep. 532,319 (12.99%) Lib. 23,900 (0.58%) GrnRnb. 9,509 (0.23%) Other 2,000,062 (48.80%) ... Total 4,098,634.

Badnarik/Campagna (Lib.)

15,022

(0.52)

Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
1,071,109

(36.78)

Cobb/LaMarche (Grn. Rainbow)
10,623

(0.36)

Kerry/Edewards (Dem.)
1,803,800
(61.94)

Nader/Camejo (Unenrolled)
4,806

(0.17)

All Others
7,028

(0.24)

Total........2,912,388

Including 15,067 blanks, 2,927,455 total votes were cast.
2004 Overview
Native son John Kerry carried Massachusetts with a solid plurality of 732,691 votes (25.16 percentage points).

General Election -- Tuesday, November 7, 2000

Voting Eligible Population: 4,517,052.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 59.9%.

Registration: Dem. 1,460,881 (36.4%) Rep. 546,333 (13.6%) Lib. 16,071 (0.4%) Unenrolled, Other 1,985,511(49.5%) ... Total 4,008,796.

Browne/Olivier (Lib.)
16,366

(0.61)

Buchanan/Higgins,Sr.(Ref.)
11,149

(0.41)

Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
878,502

(32.50)

+Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
1,616,487

(59.80)

Hagelin/Tompkins (Unenr.)
2,884

(0.11)

Nader/LaDuke (Grn.)
173,564

(6.42)

McReynolds/Hollis (w/in)
42

-

All others
3,990

(0.15)

Total........2,702,984

Including 31,022 blanks, 2,734,006 total votes were cast.
2000 Overview
Solidly Democratic Massachusetts went solidly for Gore as he won the state's 12 electoral votes with a plurality of 737,985 votes (27.30 percentage points). Gore carried all counties. Ralph Nader's 6.42% was his third best showing of any state. Massachusetts came to the fore on Oct. 3 when the first presidential debate was held at UMass in Boston; both sides mobilized their supporters, and Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan and Harry Browne were also on hand in the city. Gore and Lieberman had also visited the state earlier, holding a rally and a fundraising gala in Boston on Sept. 13.

1992 and 1996 General Elections

1992

Clinton (Dem.).....1,318,639	(47.54)
Bush (Rep.)............805,039	(29.02)
Perot.....................630,731	(22.74)
Others (5+w/ins)......19,255	(0.69)
Total........2,773,664

1996

Clinton (Dem.).....1,571,763	(61.47)
Dole (Rep.)............718,107	(28.08)
Perot (Ref.)............227,217	(8.89)
Others (3+w/ins)......39,699	(1.55)
Total........2,556,786

2004 page >
2000 page >