Polls Open Tuesday for Cambridge City Council Races

Cambridge residents will head to the polls Tuesday to vote in the city’s municipal elections.

Harvard students with roots in Cambridge said their city has a particularly active local politics scene, but students differed in their interest in voting this cycle.

Tamjid A. Rahman ’19, who has lived in Cambridge since childhood, said he plans to vote and hopes his high school friends who are away at college will send in absentee ballots as well.

“Cambridge has a reputation of being politically active,” Rahman said. “We pride ourselves a lot on that.”

Rahman said he is loosely following elections but is hoping one candidate in particular will earn a seat on city council. He did not specify which candidate had won his strong support. Rahman expects to travel to a nearby retirement home to cast his vote.

But other Harvard students with ties to Cambridge said they are less sure about voting tomorrow.

“I used to follow the elections if someone I knew was running, but other than that I don’t follow it too much,” Benjamin F. Altshuler ’19 said.

Altshuler has lived in Cambridge for the last 14 years but said he has not kept up with the elections this cycle.

Altshuler said he does not expect many Harvard students from Cambridge to vote tomorrow, adding that Cambridge politics have limited impact on students while they are on campus.

“Students tend to vote on things relating to Harvard,” Altshuler said. “I don’t think issues in Cambridge really affect Harvard students.”

Recent news of John Sanzone’s exit from the race has not seemed to have affected voting habits among students. John Sanzone recently dropped out of the race after he was found to have posted racist and homophobic comments on a white supremacist website as a teenager.

Polls will be open tomorrow between 7 a.m.and 8 p.m. The Cambridge city government has provided a map and a website on which voters can find their polling locations and precinct information.