Tuesday’s primary results may not have generated many surprises, with November all but cast as a race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but some organizers are celebrating a win for their efforts to send a signal over the war in Gaza.
Nearly 60,000 Bay State voters — about 9% — chose “no preference” as an alternative to Biden on the Democratic primary ballot, which advocates see as a protest of Biden’s response to the war in Gaza where Israel’s offensive has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead. It comes on the heels of Michigan, where last week more than 100,000 voters selected “uncommitted,” a strong showing for the grassroots movement that has sprung up urging Democrats to cast a vote of “no preference” on primary ballots.
Lara Jirmanus, an organizer behind the Vote No Preference Massachusetts Coalition, said the group “surpassed all expectations” with the results.
But voting data from past years suggests the statewide numbers of “no preference” voters aren’t out of the ordinary. Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, points to 2012, the last presidential primary with a Democratic incumbent running without a serious challenger. Over 10% voted “no preference” when Barack Obama was running for re-election, even without an organized campaign.
“We were expecting Joe Biden to win by a lot. That is, in fact, what happened,” Koczela said. “In the end, the ‘no preference’ vote looks like it's going to come out somewhere in the range of where it has historically. So we didn't really see a huge swell in that percentage.”
The push to vote “no preference” had a more apparent impact in cities including Boston, where 14% voted “no preference” this year, among the higher counts in the state. In Somerville, where the campaign was most active, 23% of city Democrats filled in the “no preference” bubble, based on totals at the time of publication.
At-large Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., who is involved with the Vote No Preference Massachusetts Coalition, called the results “extraordinary” considering the campaign was only active for about five days.
“For a grassroots organization to pull something like this off is, you know, fairly unheard of in electoral politics,” he said. “And I'm also heartened, as a Somerville resident, that Somerville topped the ticket of communities when it came to a ‘no preference’ vote.”
Members of the Vote No Preference Coalition say they’re committed to pushing Biden as much as possible and would continue their movement through the general election.
“We had set an internal goal for ourselves of trying to get 10,000 votes. And with only five days of organizing a completely volunteer-run effort, we got over 55,000 votes,” Jirmanus said. “We activated over 400 volunteers and also fundraised over $6,000. [We] sent a really clear message that we don't want our tax dollars to be paying for genocide.”
Trump has, in the past, embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and supported the policies of Israel. Still, Burnley in Somerville said he personally won’t support Biden or Trump if they allow the war in Gaza to continue.
“I think if our choices are between genocide and genocide, then our democracy isn't worth much, quite frankly,” Burnley said. “And I personally believe that it is incumbent upon the president — not the voters, but the president — to actually shift policy and take responsibility.”
