Lynn students still have almost a month before they return to school, but it’s not too early for their parents and all Lynn voters to buckle down and do some homework on the city’s candidates for elected office.
The last day to register to vote in the Sept. 14 city preliminary election is Wednesday, Aug. 25 by 8 p.m. Voters have 29 candidates to study, including three mayoral candidates, seven at-Large City Council candidates, 10 candidates for council ward offices and nine School Committee candidates.
Unlike any other city election in the last 20 years, this year’s election will not include the name of an incumbent mayor and only three of the seven ward council seats — 2, 3 and 4 — feature a challenger seeking to unseat a veteran councilor.
There was a time when it was unheard of for a ward councilor in Lynn to go unchallenged. For neighborhood residents, ward races are referendums on how well basic city services — including public safety, snow plowing, trash collection, park maintenance and street lighting — are provided.
Ward councilors serve as conduits between constituents and municipal departments in helping to assess and improve these services.
School committees are responsible for hiring and firing school superintendents. But voters have important choices to make on election day when it comes to electing fellow Lynn residents who are qualified to hire or fire the person who holds perhaps the city’s most important job.
Lynn is a changing city and the Sept. 14 ballot mirrors that change with Spanish-speaking, Haitian-American, Carribean- and Southeast-Asian-American candidates on the ballot.
Candidates’ signs popping up around the city prove people running for office want voters to learn about them and go to the polls. It isn’t too early to know more about candidates knocking on doors, handing out campaign brochures and preparing to speak at campaign forums.
This newspaper published mayoral candidate profiles on Aug. 3, 4 and 10 and candidates provide information on their backgrounds and positions on city issues on their websites.
Labor Day will come and go and the preliminary election is right behind it. It’s time to hit the books, voters.
