City Council Election 2013

This dataset contains the original final vote tally from 2013 Cambridge City Council election. The City Council comprises nine members and is the Cambridge's lawmaking body.

Proportional Representation (PR) is the method by which voters in Cambridge elect members of the City Council and School Committee. In a PR election you may vote for as many of the candidates listed on the ballot as you wish, but you must rank the candidates in order of preference. This ensures minority representation with majority control.

The vote count begins with the sorting of ballots by the first preference shown on each valid ballot. That is the NUMBER 1 vote on each ballot. This is generally known as the "First Count". Any candidates who reach the necessary quota with Number 1 votes are declared elected. During the 2013 City Council Election, the quota was 1,775 votes. Any extra ballots they receive beyond the quota are redistributed to the candidates marked next in preference (the number 2 preference) on those excess ballots. The count continues with the elimination of those candidates receiving fewer than fifty votes in the first count. Their ballots are redistributed to the other candidates according to the next preference marked. After each distribution, the candidate now having the lowest number of votes is eliminated and his/her ballots redistributed to the next indicated preference (number 2,3,4 etc.) As candidates reach the quota through the addition of redistributed ballots to their totals, they are declared elected and no further ballots are transferred to them. This process continues until all candidates have been eliminated except the nine winners for City Council.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.cambridgema.gov/election/programsandservices/cambridgemunicipalelections