Needham Votes Blue... What a Surprise

In case you forgot, earlier this month was Election Day, and a lot was on the ticket - especially in Needham. Not only did people vote for the President, but also for the Senate and House of Representatives seats, Massachusetts State Senate and House of Representatives seats, local officials, and two ballot questions. 

Needham High School also held its own mock election conducted via a Google form sent to all students. It included all of the races and questions on the actual Massachusetts ballot; however, some races varied depending on where the student lived, like those for the State Senate and the House of Representatives. 

The results of this election are important to look at to understand what Needham is like in relation to the rest of the country. Needham is known to be a deeply blue town in a safely blue state, but HOW blue is it?

The results of the school-wide election in comparison to the real-life results are as follows:

These results are not surprising. In our election, candidates and ballot initiatives that leaned left won by an overwhelming margin. There are several reasons why this trend makes perfect sense. First, Needham is considered a very liberal town in a very liberal state, so the overwhelming support for Democratic candidates was entirely predictable. In addition, all of the voters in the mock election were eighteen years old or younger, and younger people tend to vote more liberal. Needham also has a relatively high population of Jewish residents, who also tend to be Democratic voters. Certainly a higher percentage of Needhamites are Jewish than are as a percentage of the state population, but I think the current numbers are still only about 3% of Needhamites are Jewish. Am I looking at old data? I’ve always been a little confused by that number. 

Despite Question 2 winning in the NHS mock election, it did not trend well in the state. The result of Question 2 came as a shock to many Massachusetts voters, since prior to election day, Yes on 2 had a slight lead in polling and few vocal opponents. Ranked choice voting is generally supported by those of liberal ideology, but even former Republican Governor Bill Weld came out in support of the initiative. There is also growing dissatisfaction among voters about the fact that candidate options are very limited, and ranked choice voting would solve the problem by preventing candidates who receive less than 50% of the vote from winning their elections. In the Massachusetts 4th congressional district, where Needham is located, a ranked choice voting system likely would have altered the results of the September primary, where Jake Auchincloss won the Democratic nomination with just 22.4% of the vote, upsetting many voters. It’s not surprising that NHS voted in support of ranked choice voting, as 54.5% of the town voted yes on question 2 and many students worked on the campaigns of candidates who ran in that election. 

Although these numbers make sense, it is possible that this data could still be skewed. This poll was presented to the entire population of Needham High School, but it was not required. From what we have noticed, the most outspoken and civically-engaged students at our school tend to be very liberal (a trend that is seen across the country). This means that those students could have been more enthusiastic about voting, and our data could have a liberal skew. This would explain why the difference between the mock election and the actual election is larger in races such as the State Senate and 4th Congressional District House seats. In addition, the farther down the ballot a candidate is, the less attention voters pay, often leading to people voting based on their party affiliation, such as in the Norfolk County Commissioner race, where Democrats Joseph Shea and Richard Staiti beat Independent Heather Hamilton. Ultimately, this is why the Needham High school mock elections are so important: exposing students to the political process early on encourages civic engagement. By giving students the opportunity to vote in mock elections, they are exposed to real life civic skills and are taught the importance of democracy, especially at this critical point in our nation’s history.