Worcester 2023 Preliminary Primer: Everything To Know About Sept. 5 Election

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester's 2023 preliminary is the biggest deal ever, literally.

This year's preliminary has the most municipal races on the ballot in modern Worcester history — dating back at least as far as the last City Charter change in 1985. Voters across Worcester will go to the polls Tuesday to pick the candidates who will advance to the November general election in council district 1, 2, 4 and 5 and the new District E school committee seat.

Voters living in almost every part of the city — except some parts of council District 3 and school committee District C — will get a chance to participate in the preliminary, which may mean higher voter turnout. The city also offered early voting over the week before Labor Day.

The election would be one for the history books for the school committee race alone. The new district system for school committee replaces the old system, where all candidates were elected at-large. The change comes after a 2021 lawsuit led by the Worcester NAACP over the school committee's lack of racial diversity. The new school committee districts do not overlap exactly with council districts, however.

Whether you've been following the election closely this summer or are surprised to hear there's an election Tuesday, here's what to know about voting in the preliminary.

Where, When To Vote

Polls will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and there are dozens of voting sites across the city. The Worcester City Clerk has made it extremely easy to find out which one is yours.

The deadline to register to vote in the Sept. 5 preliminary passed on Aug. 26. You can check if you're registered to vote here.

What To Know About Races

One reason for the high number of preliminary races is the (relatively) high number of sitting councilors who are not running for reelection in 2023.

The District 1 and District 4 races are completely wide open with incumbents Sean Rose and Sarai Rivera stepping down at the end of the year. In Districts 2 and 5, incumbents are facing multiple challengers.

The three candidates running for District E on the school committee are all newcomers having never held elective office before.

Who Are The Candidates?

On July 13, Worcester Patch asked every council candidate for either an in-person or phone interview before the preliminary. Of the 14 candidates who will appear on the ballot Tuesday, four candidates did not respond to multiple requests for interviews. District 5 candidate Jose Rivera's campaign manager said Rivera would only answer questions via email. The remaining candidates were interviewed in-person at locations of their choosing (except one who was interviewed by phone due to a scheduling error). Click the links below to read each profile.

District 1

• David Peterson
• Larry Shetler
• Jenny Pacillo

District 2

• Robert Bilotta
• Phil Palmieri
• Candy Mero-Carlson (i)

District 4

• Luis Ojeda
• Katia Norford
• Ted Kostas
• Maureen Schwab
• Maria Montano

District 5

• Etel Haxhiaj (i)
• Jose Rivera
• Edson Montero

Worcester Patch sent the three District E school committee candidates questionnaires. Here are their answers:

• Nelly Medina
• Kathi Roy
• John Reed

More Info

If you don't like the Worcester Patch coverage of the race, you're in luck! Multiple local, independent news outlets have provided some pretty substantial coverage of the candidates ahead of Sept. 5.

The best resource is local politics blogger Nicole Apostola's post tracking every candidate interview so far this season from sources like Jennifer Gaskin and Giselle Rivera-Flores' "Don't Touch My Podcast," the Talk of the Commonwealth radio show (which also broadcast two candidate forums), This Week In Worcester, Manny Jae Media and many others. Apostola also covered many of the forums held over the summer individually. Bill Shaner's Worcester Sucks and I Love It newsletter has also been going deep on the themes surrounding the election.

You can also view more Worcester Patch coverage of the races, including forums and more, on this page.