|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
It’s time for New Bedford residents to vote in the elections where their ballots have the most sway.
Local elections and preliminaries can determine everything from the class sizes in local schools to the roads repaired in your neighborhood — and every vote can make a big difference.
In the last municipal election, about 100 votes separated the two Ward 1 candidates, determining that Leo Choquette would oversee the consequential Parallel Products saga as councilor. About 200 votes citywide — a 0.8% margin — determined the final at-large councilor seat, which saw Linda Morad return for what would be her last term.
Subscribe to our Weekender newsletter
Busy week? Catch up on the most important stories you might have missed with our Weekender newsletter.
The meager 13% and 11% turnout in the last two municipal elections (and significantly lower turnout in their preliminaries) means that every vote has an outsized effect on the future of New Bedford.
How to register to vote or check your status
To vote in this year’s preliminary election, on Tuesday, Oct. 7 – which features 12 candidates for the five at-large council seats – New Bedford residents must be registered to vote by Saturday, Sept. 27. You can check your voter registration status online through the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website, where you can also register to vote.
Register to vote by Oct. 25 to participate in the Nov. 4 general election for City Council, School Committee, and assessor.
If you prefer to register in-person, visit the Elections Commission office, located in City Hall Room 114 (go to the right on the first floor, and follow the hall to the back of the building).
Where to vote
Finding your polling location can also be done online or by visiting the Election Commission office in City Hall.
For fastest results, use the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s online tool, which automatically finds your polling place based on your address. Many of them are in the schools, churches, or community centers you already know.
Voters in two precincts will have a new polling location this year. Residents of Wards 3A and 3C, which includes the Hicks-Logan area and the residential neighborhood north of Sawyer Street and west of Ashley Boulevard, will cast ballots at the Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, at 121 Mount Pleasant St. (A city release asked 3A and 3C voters to use the church entrance on Mount Vernon Street when voting this year.)
These voters previously voted at the Hayden-McFadden School, but the ongoing I-195 construction project necessitated the change.
The Election Commission also publishes a full list of polling locations. For those who prefer telephone or in-person services, you can confirm your ward and precinct’s polling location by visiting City Hall or calling 508-979-1420.
Cast your ballot, or vote by mail
Many New Bedford residents, including senior citizens, working parents, and otherwise busy people, have begun to vote by mail, the increasingly popular and safe way to vote.
For the Oct. 7 preliminary, you can request your mail-in or absentee ballot from the Election Commission before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30, by visiting City Hall or calling 508-979-1420.
For the Nov. 4 general election, request your mail-in or absentee ballot before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Manuel DeBrito, chair of New Bedford’s Election Commission, has said there are additional checks associated with the mail-in voting system, including more hand checks by election staff. This extra layer of security makes mail-in voting among the safest ways you can vote, DeBrito said.
More than 11% of New Bedford voters (1,009 people) used mail-in voting in 2023, according to DeBrito. That number was up significantly from 2021, when 5.6% of voters mailed in their ballots (377 people), owing to lower turnout.
Mail-in voting has allowed more voters the chance to participate in local elections, and it may be helping to reverse a decades-long trend of declining voter turnout.
New Bedford will be the only city in Massachusetts with an October preliminary election this year. City councilors overruled the advice of the Election Commission and voting experts statewide, rejecting a measure to move the preliminary to Sept. 16. The earlier date would have allowed more time to securely process mail-in voting ballots in the general election.
If you choose to vote in-person for the Oct. 7 preliminary, polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Your Oct. 7 vote will determine who is on the general-election ballot for the at-large councilor seats this year. You can watch The Light’s video interview series, where these candidates were given the opportunity to introduce themselves and their platform.
In the Nov. 4 general election, the at-large councilor finalists will be up for election, plus candidates for ward councilor, School Committee, and city assessor. Video interviews with general-election candidates will be published in October.
The importance of your vote
New Bedford is not immune from the political apathy and distrust plaguing all Americans. Only 4% of Americans say the political system is working very well, according to the Pew Research Center — and 65% of Americans “feel exhausted” when thinking about politics.
“Barely one in 10 of [survey] respondents thinks that the government represents them well,” according to research from the University of Chicago.
Scores of comments from New Bedford Light readers this year have called for change in local government.
Some readers hope for younger representatives: “It’s time to vote in younger people to the Council,” commented one reader, in May.
Many others have written that it’s “time for change” in local leadership on multiple stories over the last few months.
Yet for every eight registered New Bedford voters, only one showed up to vote in the last municipal election.
For New Bedford residents who want a stake in deciding their local government, the Oct. 7 preliminary and Nov. 4 general election offer the chance to choose all 11 city councilors, three (of six) School Committee members, and one (of three) city assessors.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
Keep The Light shining with your donation.
As an independent, nonprofit news outlet, we rely on reader support to help fund the kind of in-depth journalism that keeps the public informed and holds the powerful accountable. Thank you for your support.
Big thanks goes out to Light for the Election Coverage. Now it i time to get out to vote and make changes to the city council, because if you don’t nothing will change in the upcoming two years.
Look at all the answers in the several articles written on the election. The councilors currently holding office say the same things they have said for years, no new ideas, no new solutions, just the same old lip service.
It has been over ten years and the council has done nothing to stop this administration’s expansion of city government and the rise in city taxes.
Taxes went up lin2024 and the Mayor came back in 2025 and asked for another 35 Million dollars and the Council folded and could barely cut 10 Million dollars and now after the election Taxes will rise again.
It is real simple the city should not be spending money it does not have, we cannot run this city relying on state aid and limited tax revenues, because taxes will never stop going up.
Look back in just 2025 the Council failed to act on, mishandled, or did not even try to resolve so many issues:
Getting along with the Mayor
Pensions
Health Care
The Recall Petition.
Longevity Pay
Accidentally eliminating single family zoning
Deceased school employees still receiving benefits.
Parking, of RV’s Campers, and Trailers on our streets.
Litter and Noise (Loud Music / Loud Exhaust) throughout our city.
Scooters, Four Wheelers, and Motorcycles. Terrorizing our city
Go to City Hall website and look at the initial City Agreement with Parallel Products that started this whole mess. Read the comments from the Councilors praising the agreement. https://www.newbedford-ma.gov/blog/news/parallel-products-drops-biosolids-project-in-agreement-with-city/
New Bedford please get out and vote, it’s time to save our city, we definitely need new leadership on the City Council.
The renters of New Bedford do not go out and vote,yet they complain about the tremendous increase in rents yet this Mayor vetoed rent control and the homeowners and business’s put him back in . The renters also complain about our street’s that are absolutely ruining their vehicles. Yet they don’t vote for a needed change. It’s time for all 58,000 plus registered voters to get to involved. We have a 250 million dollar difference between the operating budget and our revenue sources that could very well put our city into receivership. So I say to all the registered voters this is a very critical time for our city’s future. Please make time to voice your concerns and vote.
I don’t know how anyone can possibly support rent control, a friend bought a three family home last year because he couldn’t afford a single family home mortgage. He paid the 20% /$100,000 down payment required with his savings, and bought the home for $510,000.
The monthly payment for the remaining $410,000 principal+ 7.0% interest, his monthly payment is nearly $2,400, then add the property taxes, property insurance, water & sewer bill, and the maintenance costs, for a total monthly cost of $4,100 per month, and as all home owners know, the water & sewer, property insurance, and property taxes all increase annually, how can you possibly consider rent control? It’s impossible, and for all the people who are complaining about property owners ripping them off with outrageous rent prices, feel free to let me know where he can cut costs and I’ll have him look into it.