At-large City Councillor Ruthzee Louijeune says she has enough support among her colleagues on next year’s council to take over as the body’s president. Seven votes are required to win a majority on the thirteen-member body. Louijeune topped the ticket in Boston’s election last week, winning 44,479 votes in her second time on the citywide ballot.

Councillor Ruthzee Louijeune celebrated her re-election with her parents at dBar on Dorchester Avenue. Louijeune was the top vote-getter in Boston on Tuesday— winning 43,127 votes. Seth Daniel photo Less than one-fifth of Boston’s electorate trickled to the polls on Tuesday to pick a new crop of city councillors in an election that will bring a marked shift in the personnel and dynamics to the 13-member body. The new faces will include John FitzGerald, who posted a decisive victory over Joel Richards in the race to succeed Frank Baker as the District 3 councillor.

Polls open on Tuesday, 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. Boston’s local election cycle toggles between higher turnout years, with campaigns for City Council and Mayor, and “off years,” with only a race for the council. But 2023 is shaping up to be one of the “way off” years, when a dearth of expected at-large vacancies and candidates can flatten the curve on voter turnout.

MFA/Boston

On Jan.12, 2010, I woke up to a sunny day in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In a few hours, I would be heading to Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport to fly back to Boston after a two-week vacation in my parents’ homeland, a break from the winter cold that my big family looked forward to every year. I gave hugs and kisses to my dad, my aunts, uncles, and grandmother who had decided to extend their stay a little longer. My little brother, two of my aunts, and I headed home.