What You Need to Know About the Upcoming Municipal Elections

Zoe Fritz-Sherman, Metro Editor
October 5, 2019

The Basics

The upcoming Cambridge City Council and School Committee elections will take place on November 5th. To find out where your local polling station is, go to https://www.cambridgema.gov/.

The city of Cambridge uses proportional representation to elect city officials. Proportional representation is a process where voters rank candidates, indicating their top choice as #1, their next as #2, and so on.

The School Committee is a board with seven members that determines the school department’s policies and budget. The chair of the Committee is the mayor, while the other six members are directly elected at-large. At-large voting means that these officials are elected by the whole city and not just by a district.

The City Council’s nine members participate in the legislative branch of local government, handling everything from authorizing public improvements to controlling the finances and property taxes of the city. The council members are elected at-large using the PR electoral process, and after each new Council is formed, the members elect two of the city councilors to be the mayor and vice-mayor.