Our Election Fact Explained!

Like Paul on the road to Damascus, the scales just fell from our eyes, but it wasn't the Holy Spirit that we saw. It was the Boston political machine. Earlier today, we wondered why only 60 percent of possible votes in the at-large city council races were cast. The answer: "bullet voting"!

We admit to being a little naive, so we'll leave the explanation to an old school Bostonian, who wishes to be kept anonymous:

Some math whizzes basically figured out that if you only vote for 1, for instance, your vote essentially counts 4 times. It’s called “bullet voting.” In campaign circles, you’ll often hear a candidate saying, “I’m not going to tell you to bullet vote…” and then his voice trails off leading toward a big giant “but.”

City council challengers like Ayanna Pressley tend to benefit from voters who use all four of their votes. Incumbents tend to benefit from bullet voting. We may have had our Boston Pass revoked for not knowing about this, but now, you don't have to.