Number of voters registered in Boston swells
More
blacks have signed up
By John C. Drake
Globe Staff / August
26, 2008

Voter registration is surging this
year in Boston, particularly in precincts with high concentrations of black
residents who voted in large numbers for Governor Deval Patrick in 2006 and who
organizers say are reenergized by the presidential candidacy of Democrat Barack
Obama.
Of the 10 Boston precincts with the
largest proportion of black registered voters, six already had more registered
voters by Aug. 13 than they did by Election Day in 2004, when Senator John F.
Kerry was on the presidential ballot.
On Aug. 13, there were about
355,000 registered voters overall in Boston. That represented more than 80 percent
of the city's estimated 435,000 voting-age adults and was just 20,000 shy of
the total registered voters on Election Day 2004.
Local election officials and
organizers estimate that hundreds, if not thousands, more have registered since
Aug. 13 in a major registration drive by advocacy groups. They also expect tens
of thousands more to register before Election Day this year.
In 2004, about 30,000 people
registered to vote in the seven weeks before Election Day, said Geraldine
Cuddyer, Boston's election commissioner.
"This year, we'll exceed
that," said Cuddyer, who added that the city will be scouring for more
poll workers to boost the usual number of 1,600.
The deadline to register for the
Sept. 16 state primary is tomorrow. The deadline to register for the Nov. 4
general election is Oct. 15.
With the growing registrations,
officials are wary of repeating mistakes from the 2006 election, when the city
failed to deliver enough ballots to many precincts, angering many minority
voters. Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who stepped in and took over
supervision of the city's elections after 2006, said his staff is poring over
registration and demographic figures for Boston neighborhoods to make sure
enough ballots are printed and delivered.
"It's going to be a real
challenge," Galvin said in a telephone interview. "They're going to
have a huge turnout. I'm convinced of it."
Galvin said he expects Boston's
growth in registration to be reflected statewide, but state figures were not
yet available.
Doreen Treacy - director of the
DotWell CivicHealth Institute, a Dorchester nonprofit - said she has seen more
optimism among people she asks to register than in previous election cycles. As
part of a citywide voter registration drive on Aug. 9, for instance, Treacy
said a group of volunteers in Fields Corner in Dorchester registered 54 people
in four hours.
"I saw much more hopefulness
this time," Treacy said. "Often, the refrain you hear is, 'I don't
vote,' and they walk by the table with the implication that it's
irrelevant."
But this year, she added, "A
tremendous number of people said: 'Yes, I want to make sure I'm registered. I
really want to vote.' "
In addition to the increased
interest in Obama's candidacy, the high rates reflect effects of registration
drives conducted by supporters of Governor Deval Patrick before his 2006
election, said Avi Green, executive director of the voter advocacy group
MassVote.
"There have been some fairly
massive efforts to mobilize those people," Green said. "Those increases
in the registration numbers add up year after year."
The Globe compared voter
registration data supplied by the Boston Election Department to
precinct-by-precinct demographic data compiled by MassVote, which is based on
the 2000 census.
Of the city's 355,000 voters, 54
percent are Democrats, 8 percent are Republicans, and 37 percent are
unenrolled, the city's Aug. 13 figures show.
Ward 14, which includes portions of
Roxbury and Mattapan along with six of the seven precincts with the largest
percentage of black residents in the city, had 117 more registered voters,
16,157, on Aug. 13 this year than it had on Nov. 2, 2004.
Councilor Charles Yancey, who
represents Ward 14, said his office has participated in recent voter
registration drives that added a few hundred people to the rolls.
"More and more young people
are beginning to understand the connection between their future and
participating in the electoral process," Yancey said.
Green said community groups are
increasingly seeking to conduct registration drives.
"In 2007, we had to call
nonprofits and community organizations and beg them if we could come in and
make a presentation about voter registration," he said. "This year we
can't keep up with the phone calls coming in.
"You get the feeling of
impending excitement, that it's just, in terms of voting in Massachusetts, this
is the calm before the storm."
John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.