If Burlington’s young people had their way, local government could have looked just a little different, according to the tally of the unofficial student vote shared by the Town Clerk’s office.
Burlington residents under 18 have the opportunity to cast a ballot in the student vote in the April 1 elections; student votes don’t count towards the final tally, and are only an opportunity for young people to get familiar with the voting process.
Out of a total of 87 youth votes, the under-18 crowd broke in favor of Brian Pupa over Lindsay Carlson for Recreation Commission by one vote, at 34 to 33 respectively, with three write-ins and 17 blanks. By contrast, Carlson beat Pupa in the adult vote (and thereby won the seat on the commission) by 282 votes, with 1,377 and 1,097 votes respectively.
In the School Committee race, where Jeremy Brooks unseated Carl Foss to join Katherine Bond in two open seats, kids broke the same way as adults: Bond garnered 42 votes, Jeremy Brooks got 41, and Carl Foss earned 33.
Members of Burington’s Boy Scouts Troop 103 showed up to manage the youth vote. Between card games, dedicated Boy Scouts helmed the youth vote table and made sure minors understood the process.
The youth vote differed from the adult count in another major way: Kids voted for write-in candidates at a much higher rate than adults. If any of those kids wrote themselves in, we just might have a future politician on our hands.
Burlington Cable Access Television (BCAT) | 123 Cambridge Street, Burlington, MA (MAP)
781.273.5922