Voters head to the polls in Boston City Council elections – The Boston Globe

Tuesday is voters’ chance to declare what kind of council they want. Come January, the 13-member council will welcome at least four new faces, a notable level of turnover in a city where incumbents rarely lose. Those openings come after a dramatic September preliminary election, when voters ousted Councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Kendra Lara, who were each battling personal scandals. Two long-term incumbents, Councilor At Large Michael Flaherty and District 3 Councilor Frank Baker, are also leaving the council after this year.

Voters in Dorchester, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, and other neighborhoods are choosing new representatives in open races. Meanwhile, Councilors Tania Fernandes Anderson, Sharon Durkan, and Liz Breadon are defending their seats against challengers, in Roxbury, Beacon Hill, and Allston-Brighton, respectively. Three incumbent councilors — Gabriela Coletta of East Boston, Ed Flynn of South Boston, and Brian Worrell of Dorchester — are running unopposed. And in the race for four at-large seats representing the entirety of Boston, three incumbents are seeking reelection, while five newcomers vie for a spot.

Several of this year’s council races follow familiar battle lines in Boston politics: progressive newcomers, many of them with ties to Mayor Michelle Wu, taking on more moderate candidates with links to the city’s old guard, in several cases former mayor Martin J. Walsh. Tuesday will be a test of Wu’s influence in city politics, as several candidates with her backing appear on the ballot.

“There are some really big choices ahead of us,” Wu told a group of volunteers and candidates on Saturday morning in Hyde Park, as she campaigned for ally Enrique Pepén in District 5. “Are we moving forward as a city? Are we continuing the progress to bring everyone into the conversation? Or are we getting dragged back a little bit into the, ‘Us vs. them’ and, ‘We need to protect our pie,’ when in fact we should be growing opportunity for everyone.”

Pepén faces Jose Ruiz, a longtime Boston police officer, in the race to represent District 5, which includes Hyde Park, Roslindale — where Wu lives — and parts of Mattapan.

In neighboring District 6, which includes Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, labor attorney Benjamin Weber is running against IT director William King.

In Dorchester-based District 3, longtime BPDA official John FitzGerald faces teacher and pastor Joel Richards.

In the at-large race, incumbents Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia, and Erin Murphy are seeking reelection. From the field of five challengers, two have emerged as the most serious contenders, political analysts say: Henry Santana, a former City Hall official with Wu’s endorsement, and Bridget Nee-Walsh, a union ironworker who ran unsuccessfully two years ago.

Catch up with the Globe’s full coverage of each district council race here.

As of midday Monday, 28,631 Boston voters had already cast ballots, most of those by mail.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said Monday he expects turnout in Boston to fall below what it was in 2021, when 144,380 voters — or 32 percent of registered voters — weighed in during the historic race that saw Wu become the first woman and person of color elected mayor in the city’s history.

Speaking about the elections in 80 Massachusetts cities and towns this week, Galvin said Monday that turnout is expected to vary dramatically across the state with neither the White House, statewide offices, nor most state legislative seats on the ballot. It’s “reasonably acceptable,” he said, to expect 30 to 50 percent of registered voters to cast ballots in the various municipal races.

“It’s not acceptable to me. But that’s the range historically,” Galvin said, noting the elections can decide not only who serves in a town or city but also how much residents are taxed or critical development decisions. “These really are the elections that affect people where they live.”

Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed reporting.

Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.