Saturday, September 13, 2008

Vote early and not very often

Here's a quiz for you.

How many votes does it take to get elected to the Flint City Council? The answer is not that many. Delrico J. Loyd won the 1st Ward seat in August with just 745 votes. Eric Mays came in second with 702. According to the City of Flint website, each councilperson for the city's nine wards represents approximately 15,640 people.

It makes it sound like an enterprising young politician could start a career in Flint. Of course, getting elected would be the easy part.

UPDATE: A reader asked for the election results of the 2007 mayor's race. Here they are via USA Today:

Dayne Walling 11,853 (49%)

W -- Don Williamson* 12,434 (51%)

Williamson, a 73-year-old multimillionaire businessman, dipped deeply into his own account to fund his campaign. Williamson overcame criticism of his criminal distant past — he served more than three years in prison in the 1960s for crimes related to bad checks. Walling, a 33-year-old Rhodes scholar with multiple degrees who worked in the District of Columbia government, had promised to revitalize the city.


The Flint Journal provides an unofficial breakdown by wards:





Dayne Walling Don Williamson

1st WARD


1 240 217

2 216 222

3 77 169

4 162 205

5 151 203

6 99 164

Total 945 1,180





2nd WARD


7 186 214

8 223 255

9 143 173

10 143 211

11 154 150

12 175 156

Total 1,024 1,159





3rd WARD


13 146 224

14 80 134

15 122 194

16 29 34

17 88 147

18 93 126

19 74 135

Total 632 994





4th WARD


20 110 202

21 112 188

22 235 317

23 104 162

24 27 36

25 224 308

Total 812 1,213





5th WARD


26 133 164

27 104 181

28 135 190

29 211 242

30 2 7

31 7 29

32 87 110

33 29 41

Total 708 964





6th WARD


34 398 260

35 196 195

36 163 149

37 345 181

38 290 184

39 87 125

40 24 26

Total 1,503 1,120





7th WARD


42 466 225

43 305 191

44 250 143

45 390 144

46 234 216

47 424 294

Total 2,069 1,213





8th WARD


48 189 238

49 166 223

50 283 281

51 97 115

52 15 13

53 443 265

54 192 234

Total 1,385 1,369





9th WARD


55 108 218

56 15 17

57 169 132

58 54 71

59 224 264

60 186 171

61 280 254

Total 1,036 1,127





Absentee 1,739 2,095





TOTAL 11,853 12,434


2 comments:

  1. I'm curious as to what percentage and exactly how many votes the buffoon currently sitting in the mayor's office received. Anyone know? And yes, I may be an expatriate, but I'm really quite bitter about what The Don has done to my hometown. See his latest SOB-ery on Macy Swain's site.

    (GeeWhy -- if you need to censor this because of the terms "buffoon" and "SOB", please come up with suitable alternatives that convey the frustration we all feel over the current mis-administration.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Gee Why. I'd write more, but I'm on my way to the new drag strip on Bluff Street. As the radio commercials used to blare "Sunday!!! Sunday!!!......"

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.