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November 25, 2009

Our view: Every vote counts

Residents of Peabody's Ward 4 got a lesson this month in how every vote does, indeed, count.

Longtime Ward 4 Councilor Robert Driscoll held on to his seat by the narrowest of margins. His single-vote victory over challenger Jeff Grayson in the Nov. 3 election turned into a two-vote edge following last Saturday's recount at City Hall.

In either case, a single vote taken from Driscoll and awarded to Grayson would have made all the difference.

Lynn voters received a similar lesson in the power of an energized electorate this fall. There City Councilor Judith Flanagan Kennedy did the unimaginable — topping the primary ballot in the mayoral election as a write-in candidate. She then went on to best incumbent Edward "Chip" Clancy (the former state senator from the 1st Essex District, which includes the towns of Marblehead and Swampscott) by a couple of dozen votes in the Nov. 3 election, and ended up picking up a few more in the subsequent recount.

Thus it's not empty rhetoric when candidates plead for their supporters to go to the polls regardless of what other duties call on the day of the election. (There's a famous tale, also out of Peabody, about the mayoral candidate who lost because his wife forgot to vote.)

A single motivated voter can make a difference. Just ahead are the Democratic and Republican primaries in the contest to fill the late Edward Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat (Dec. 8) and the final on Jan. 19. Make sure you make time to get to the polls.

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