The other day, someone asked me, "If Sheryl Kozens doesn't win, can you work with whomever does?"
My answer was simple, "Of course."
Endorsing a particular candidate doesn't preclude me from working with others. Indeed, I have run against three of the other sitting selectmen. I've no problem working with them, and have managed to rack up a few accomplishments too.
That said; what can we take away from this election?
The most obvious number is the turnout, which, while considerably less than last year, was not nearly as dismal as 2004. Our first table shows how the past six years stacked up.
Our next table shows the breakdown by precinct. It reveals that Precinct 1 was again the heavy hitter, turning out almost as many voters as precincts 7 and 8 combined.
If we dig deeper into the numbers and look only at the precincts of the 02536 area code (the third table), we can see that Ms. Kozens-Long won East Falmouth (which encompasses East Falmouth, Teaticket, Hatchville and Waquoit). No surprise, really. Unfortunately, it was not enough to offset the lead that Precinct 1 gave Ms. Freitag.
These breakdowns are merely academic, as we don't elect selectmen by zip codes. However, they do illustrate a few things:
1) Precinct 1 is the most consistent block of voters, and because of this, it will often decide elections - except when East Falmouth turns out.
2) East Falmouth (Precincts 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9) can and does turn out to vote. Not consistently, but it will. When it does, it will be the decider. Even if the individual precincts don't match the turnout of Precinct 1 (which sent 1,100 to the polls in 2008, versus Precinct 9, which sent 850), the numbers add up.
The obvious question for an aspiring selectman - How does one know when East Falmouth will turn out?
