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The following letter was sent yesterday to  Fair Vote Lowell supporters. It is posted here with the permission of Victoria Fahlberg:

Dear Supporters of Fair Vote Lowell,

As you likely know by now, Choice Voting did not pass by a margin of 43% to 57%, or 5174 yes votes and 6841 no votes. We do not know the results yet in terms of precincts other than hearing that the Downtown precincts had more than a 100% increase in turnout and the traditionally strong precincts had about the same voter turnout. We don’t know if the new voters voted for Choice Voting (I’m betting they did), and in the upcoming days we will be analyzing the data to determine where our votes came from.

I have been thinking a lot about what the results mean, but before I get to that, I want to express my deep and sincere gratitude to every person who worked on this campaign. Unlike most campaigns, this campaign had two parts that required enormous work from volunteers. First, was the signature gathering that often took place in the rain or intense heat. More than 100 different people helped us gather an enormous number of signatures. It was that turnout of volunteers that gave Fair Vote Lowell the ability to press forward despite the odds against us.

Once we were finished with the signature gathering, we entered a whole new phase, that of the campaign itself. This phase also required intense labor on the behalf of volunteers, from phonebanking to canvassing, it was amazing how, once again, hundreds of people in Lowell, often people who had not participated in the signature gathering phase, stepped up to move the campaign forward.

There really are not words to describe the gratitude and thanks that all of you deserve who participated in any aspect of the Fair Vote Lowell Campaign. It was a wonderful experience to see the hope and energy of such a large and diverse group of people, who were willing to give their time to promoting justice and fairness. Thank you, thank you.

While a loss feels pretty terrible, as I reflect upon the results, I can’t feel entirely discouraged.  We had a huge uphill battle from the beginning—here are some of the challenges we faced:

1. The bar for gathering signatures for a local initiative is set at a minimum of 8% of all registered voters. For comparison, a statewide initiative only requires signatures of 3% of voters who voted in the last statewide (gubernatorial election). For us, that meant 4188 certified signatures to get choice voting on the ballot.  In Lowell, for a statewide measure it would have only been 641 certified signatures (our volunteers did more than that in a single weekend!)
2. Winning in a statewide initiative requires only a simple majority, as long as that majority includes at least a third of voters who turned out in the last gubernatorial election, whereas the bar for us included a super majority turnout that has not been seen in a local election in decades.
3. The Lowell Sun told their readers to vote No on Choice Voting. While some in Lowell debate the efficacy of our local newspaper, it should be obvious after looking at the overall results of the election thatThe Sun still holds a great deal of power among voters.
4. The local radio station was so biased against us that we felt that we could not utilize them as a source for advertising and be treated fairly. They don’t have a large audience, so this was not a major impact, but it probably did impact a few of their listeners to vote against us.
5. It was our understanding that on the ballot, the referendum would be called Question 1. The referendum had no title at all and the words Question 1 did not appear at all.  During the day, we received a number of calls from people we had phonebanked that they had not seen Question 1 on the ballot. While this would not have impacted the final result, it did confuse some people who went to the polls to vote YES on Question 1 and most likely contributed to the almost 1,700 voters who did not even vote on the question.
6. Few people in Lowell had ever heard of Choice Voting before we began signature gathering in June. We finally got the required signatures on August 27th, which only left us two months to educate the public on an issue that was completely new to them in so many ways—that Lowell’s current system is the least fair system for local multi-seat elections, that ranking candidates provides a more fair system, explaining the complicated (though necessary) vote tabulation, etc.
7. When we started this adventure, we had the promise of funds to see us through to the end, but in June that funding fell through. As a result, we were often a day late and a dollar short, so to speak. In the last few weeks of the campaign, we did see some significant donations that will help offset the cost to ONE Lowell. However, if the promised funding had been available in the Spring, I believe that we could have done more.

So with all of these challenges taken into consideration, everyone at Fair Vote Lowell actually achieved a major accomplishment—nearly 5200 people in Lowell voted for Choice Voting! The more I think about the challenges we faced, the more amazing it becomes to me that so many people voted YES for Choice Voting. How we will best use this incredible accomplishment moving forward, I don’t know. The accomplishment is not that of any one person—it belongs to us all. What I do know is that moving forward, ONE Lowell needs to hear from you, who rose to a challenge, and made a huge impact on your city.

More than anything, I want you to know that even though we lost the vote, we made our voices heard and we are more united than ever. Fairness and justice often come slowly. But it will come. Thank you, Victoria

It was a long day today, standing on achy feet outside the polls for hours with incumbents, challengers and supporters, watching and hoping for voters. At times, I admit, I was concerned about the turnout, concerned about how I would feel about my community if we didn’t see positive change, if people didn’t bother to come out and vote. Although the numbers still seem disappointingly low, the results for change were significant. The Choice Vote initiative may not have gotten the support it needed to pass, particularly in terms of a substantial increase in voters, but the message from the 5,174 who voted yes on the ballot question demonstrated that many people in this city want a government that is more representative, inclusive and accessible. Perhaps Choice Voting is not the answer, or perhaps now is not the time, but the conversation this initiative began will continue; some change is inevitable, and I predict it will happen soon.

In terms of the candidates, my congratulations to everyone who had the courage to put their names on the ballot and run. We saw several upsets on the council, the school committee, and the vocational board as incumbents Armand Mercier, Alan Kazanjian, Regina Faticanti and Michael Hayden lost seats to challengers Franky Descoteaux, Joe Mendonca, Patrick Murphy, Alison Laraba, and Fred Bahou—good hardworking, thoughtful challengers who earned the voters’ trust. As candidates, all we can do is work toward our goal, knowing we have given our best effort, but at the end of the day, the voters get to decide. Today, the voters decided I will continue to serve on the Lowell School Committee. For that honor and privilege, thank you.

First, I’m asking for your vote tomorrow to keep me on the school committee because I’m working smarter and harder than ever. The challenges our schools face cannot be solved in Lowell alone. Concerns around resources and accountability must be resolved at the state level, and as chair of the urban division of the Mass. Assoc. of School Committees, my reform efforts with other state education leaders are making an impact along with my work at the local level.

Second, I ask you to vote Yes on Question 1 because it is a fairer system for the city and all its residents. On Saturday, while knocking on doors, a voter asked me if I was crazy to want this change, since as he put it, “I got elected three times under the current system, so why fix what isn’t broken?” Frankly, I don’t think I would have a problem getting re-elected under Choice Voting, but more importantly, other good candidates will have a better chance of winning a seat, money will not be as critical in elections, more voters will be empowered, and all voters will rank their votes rather than limit them. I’m concerned how many votes are “thrown away” because voters have to worry about cancelling out favored candidates (in the 2007 election, 30,000+ votes were unused in the council race). Also, since it takes majority consensus to accomplish anything on these boards, when a group representing one percent of total voters (that’s 5,000 voters) are able to elect a slate of seats while other voters don’t get even one of their candidates elected, it leads to voter apathy and little diversity in leadership. Under a choice system, voters must prioritize their votes, which makes it more difficult for groups to elect a slate. Maybe it shouldn’t concern me that we are one of the few large cities to continue to use a system stacked against newcomers, especially since I’ve done well with it, but just like being a good parent or a good school committee member means doing what’s right over what’s easy, it concerns me greatly. Lowell deserves a fairer system for electing its leaders—one that encourages more candidates and empowers all voters—vote Yes on Question 1!