I put the vote totals on the Leopold referendum for a few wards into an
Exel file. Here’s what the numbers show:
Yes
68.2% Eastside (Tenny-Lapham neighborhood, Marquette, Lowell)
48.2% Leopold area (Wards 67,68,69, 84, 85, 86)
30.4% Northeast side (North Sherman Avenue area)
49.3% Fitchburg
Please check my figures with the official tally. I want to be certain the numbers are correct.
I’d also like to break down the vote by high school attendance area, but that will take a little time. Anyone else willing to do it?
Colin Benedict also explained the voting trends on Channel 3 on “election night.”
4 thoughts on “Leopold vote: Eastside, Westside, all around town”
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Ed,
I’m not sure how you did your calculation. We can discuss that when we meet. But I found a map of blue & red hues on-line with another blog. I’m so bummed that I didn’t save the location.
It (the other map) used ‘difference’ to calculate the various wards across MMSD voters. The darker the blue hue, the more people within the ward that voted no.
I passed on my copy of the map. This is NOT at all what the map displayed. The far west side was a very light blue hue (ultimately voting against). The far, directly East side (Kennedy, Shenk and other districts) very heavily no, as well as a location on the north side as heavily no. Most of the north was placed similiar to the far west (that being light blue). The Isthmus and Shorewood areas heavily red, passing with yes.
Again, I only had the map to review and not the calculations but this may be a good way to look at the results that you seek.
A questionable part of any comparison is by school district. Within my Ward 99 we have Huegel, Crestwood, Stephens and Falk area school districts. It’s difficult to do.
Marisue,
Thanks for your comments, as always.
You’re right that the far East side and far West side both voted no. The city looks like a dumbell (no pun intended) with support for the referenda on the isthmus “handle” and the “weights” of the dumbell voting no.
In part, I wanted to point out how some people have implied that they wanted to punish the eastside by closing schools, but the suggestions primarily focused on schools in the Isthmus that voted yes.
Additionally, no discussion focused on the lack of support for the referendum in Fitchburg.
I think the results also need to be read in the context of overall voting trends. Are the areas that opposed the Leopold referendum ones that tend to oppose increased taxes and support more conservative candidates generally?
Tim: are you suggesting there is a correlation between opposing increased taxes and voting for more conservative candidates? I’d sure hate for anyone to gauge my level of liberalism or progressiveness by my desire to pay more or less in taxes! I think that if anyone delved deeply into the reasons behind the failure of 2 out of 3 referenda, they’d find there are no correlations, only citizens who wanted to be heard, and were heard at the ballot box. I know so many folks who were afraid to publicly speak out against Leopold and the operating budget (and the Board for that matter) but instead, used the very American method of voting! While I might not agree with their votes, I do respect their reasons for casting their votes.