Participation measured against the same-year citizen voting-age population. Audited cycles count total general-election participants — ballots or participating voters, not presidential candidate votes. Cycles before 2016 predate that series and are derived from the certified presidential returns instead; they are marked everywhere they appear and are excluded from the figures below.
2004–20248 cycles · 5 audited
2024 turnout
64.0%39,964 participants ÷ 62,437 CVAP
2020→2022 drop-off
+21.2 ptsPresidential-dependent
Drop-off vs state
-2.4 ptsPositive means a larger decline than the statewide pattern
Mechanical 2026
42.8%–47.2%Recent-cycle and two-cycle persistence scenarios; not a forecast
Participation by cycle
Presidential Midterm Derived, pre-2016
0%20%40%60%80%
56.9%
48.8%
20042008201220162018202020222024
Select a presidential cycle to show it on the map and results ledger above.
Cycle
Participants
CVAP
Turnout
Series
Quality
39,964
62,437 ± 1,536
64.0%
Audited
E/A
2022Mid
29,955
61,409 ± 1,896
48.8%
Audited
E/A
42,625
60,919 ± 1,887
70.0%
Audited
E/A
2018Mid
34,450
60,511 ± 1,439
56.9%
Audited
E/A
41,124
59,376 ± 1,525
69.3%
Audited
E/A
34,816
54,134
64.3%
Derived
—
32,595
54,264
60.1%
Derived
—
30,902
54,394 extrapolated
56.8%
Derived
—
Sources and methods
Audited cycles (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024) count total general-election participants against the same-year CVAP special tabulation, each cell carrying its own numerator and denominator quality grade. Derived cycles (2004, 2008, 2012) come from the certified presidential returns on this page over the ACS 5-year CVAP series, so they measure presidential votes cast rather than ballots — a floor on participation. Where a derived cycle predates the ACS its denominator is extrapolated rather than read, and says so on its own line below. They are shown for the longer arc and are excluded from the drop-off, excess-drop-off, and 2026 scenario figures above.
2024: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 323/229.
2022: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 322/184.
2020: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 321/4.
2018: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 320/139.
2016: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 319/133.
2012 (derived): Certified presidential returns · ACS 5-year CVAP (B05003); presidential votes cast — a floor on participation, not a ballot count.
2008 (derived): Certified presidential returns · ACS 5-year CVAP (B05003); presidential votes cast — a floor on participation, not a ballot count.
2004 (derived): Certified presidential returns · extrapolated CVAP denominator; presidential votes cast — a floor on participation, not a ballot count; 2004 predates the ACS, so the denominator is a linear back-extrapolation from the 2008 and 2012 CVAP values, not a read figure.
presidential history
Party record book
Somerville, MA · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1992–2024 · 8 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
87.7%
37,070 votes · D+77.6
Runner-up · Barack Obama, 2012 · 83.8%
Republican
George H. W. Bush1992
19.4%
5,883 votes · D+45.8
Runner-up · George W. Bush, 2004 · 16.4%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
37,070votes
87.7% of the vote · D+77.6
Runner-up · Hillary Clinton, 2016 · 33,778 votes
Republican
George H. W. Bush1992
5,883votes
19.4% of the vote · D+45.8
Runner-up · John McCain, 2008 · 5,215 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
Kamala Harris2024
+73.3pts D vs U.S.
Place D+71.8 · U.S. R+1.5
Runner-up · Joe Biden, 2020 · +73.1 pts
Republican
George H. W. Bush1992
−40.2pts R vs U.S.
Place D+45.8 · U.S. D+5.6
Runner-up · Bob Dole, 1996 · −52.3 pts
U.S. House elections · 2 House
Senate and governor results are in the Office selector at the top of this page.
U.S. House
Each row shows U.S. House votes counted inside this Place. “Vote lead” is the local lead here, not necessarily the winner of the full contest.
Somerville · which candidate this place backed in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain. The figures below are Middlesex County, Massachusetts, the county containing Somerville — Somerville’s own primary vote sits inside those totals and is not separately reported.
Presidential nominating contests in Somerville, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
Somerville packs more than 18,000 residents per square mile into a compact footprint just north of Boston, producing some of the highest Democratic vote shares in Massachusetts. Its electorate skews young, highly educated, and renter-heavy.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 77.6 points in 2020. Between 2020 and 2024 the city moved 5.7 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 71.8 points.
A population of 81,036, a 66% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $132,572 describe the city. The city's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Cambridge and Brookline.
Akashic
Political twins — cities
The cities whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
In 2024, Somerville, Massachusetts voted Democratic by 71.8 points (D+71.8), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 39,964 votes cast, 33,218 went Democratic and 4,512 went Republican.
How many people live in Somerville, Massachusetts?
Somerville, Massachusetts has a population of 81,036 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Somerville, Massachusetts?
Median household income in Somerville, Massachusetts is $132,572 — above the national median of $80,734. The Massachusetts state median is $103,960.
What is the political history of Somerville, Massachusetts?
Akashic tracks 8 presidential elections in Somerville, Massachusetts from 1992 to 2024. Of those, 8 went Democratic and 0 went Republican.
