Officials: Voter push pays off

LYNN – A 2,000-voter bump in local voter registration since 2009 could reflect last year?s surge in election interest among state Democrats or a push by city election candidates to hunt down votes, election observers and campaign managers said Wednesday.More than 51,000 local voters are registered to cast ballots in the Nov. 5 final city election compared to 49,352 registered to vote in November 2009 – the city election that propelled Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy into office.The four-year difference in voter registration gains is significant in precincts like Ward 1 Precinct 2 where the number of registered voters jumped from 2,332 to 2,519 between 2009 and 2013.Kennedy narrowly beat former Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. in 2009 and she faces former City Council colleague and Council President Timothy Phelan in the Nov. 5 election.Phelan?s campaign manager and brother, Vincent Phelan, thinks local Democrats are poised to go to the polls on Nov. 5.?I think there are a lot of Democrats disenfranchised with the current administration,” he said.But Loretta Cuffe-O?Donnell, a former councilor who served with Kennedy and Phelan, and who now runs Kennedy?s campaign, reads registration numbers another way.Spread out over four years, the numbers don?t show a major change in local voter interest between the last mayoral election and this year?s contest, she said.?The interesting thing about this election is I think people tried to make it look like a partisan election, but it isn?t,” she said.Veteran Democratic party campaigner and local attorney Richard Vitali said the surge in registration numbers has more to do with 2012 than 2013. He said local Democrats pushed hard to register new voters last year in order to get U.S. Rep. John Tierney and President Obama reelected, and to get Elizabeth Warren elected to the United States Senate.?I?m not aware of a voting registration push for this year,” Vitali said.Former City Council President Robert Tucker said the increase in voters in two precincts do point to efforts by local candidates to register more voters in anticipation of the final election. Ward 4 Precinct 3 saw its registration jump from 1,785 in 2009 to 1,988 voters registered for the final election. Ward 6, Precinct 3 saw its registration count jump from 1,185 voters in 2009 to 1,606 this fall.?It shows an effort to register residents who are new to the city. I know campaigns are making a conscious effort to register new voters,” he said.Tucker said he is curious to see if newly registered voters help separate candidates who tallied close finishes in the Sept. 17 preliminary election including council at large candidates Robert Clay Walsh and Paul Crowley.?You can?t rest your laurels in a final election based on results in a preliminary election,” Tucker cautioned.