Boston vs. the state on the other five ballot questions: public records, primaries, the tax cap and the gun law

Beyond the questions that touch city business directly (7 and 8) and the two the City Council endorsed (4 and 6), Boston voters decided five more statewide questions on Tuesday. Here is how the city voted compared with the state.

All figures are unofficial. Boston's numbers come from the city's results page, last updated at 3:46 a.m. Wednesday with all 275 precincts reporting. Statewide status comes from the outlets and times noted.

Question 1: public records for the Legislature and governor

• Boston: 153,717 yes (87.61%), 21,746 no (12.39%).
• Statewide: The AP projected it would pass around 11:40 p.m. Tuesday, with 86% yes and nearly 46% counted, Boston.com reported.

Question 1 extends the public records law to the governor's office and the Legislature. City government is already covered. Boston councilors have their own way to get records from the administration, called a Section 17F order, and our records show those requests often go unanswered for months (our Oct. 24 story).

Question 2: union rights for public defender staff

• Boston: 135,834 yes (77.87%), 38,608 no (22.13%).
• Statewide: Projected to pass in Boston.com's 6:06 a.m. summary.

Question 2 lets employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state public defender agency, bargain collectively. It doesn't involve city employees.

Question 3: all-party primaries

• Boston: 64,695 yes (36.72%), 111,501 no (63.28%).
• Statewide: Failed. Supporters conceded just after 11 p.m., WBUR reported.

Question 3 would have replaced party primaries for state and federal offices with a single primary open to all candidates. The current system stays.

Question 5: the state tax cap and rebates

• Boston: 72,261 yes (40.59%), 105,746 no (59.41%).
• Statewide: At 6:06 a.m., with 80.25% counted, "no" led 52.5% to 47.5%, Boston.com reported. CBS Boston reported at 9:39 a.m. that the AP had not yet projected a winner.

Question 5 would change the formula in the state's revenue cap law so that taxpayer rebates happen more often. Boston opposed it by a wider margin than the state.

Question 9: the 2024 gun law

• Boston: 145,421 yes (80.79%), 34,577 no (19.21%).
• Statewide: A yes vote kept the law. Boston.com's 6:06 a.m. summary projected it to pass. WBUR reported that more than two-thirds of voters chose to keep it.

What our records add. Illegal guns come up at the council regularly. On June 3, City Councilor Ed Flynn filed for a hearing on the 2025 Boston Firearm Trafficking Report (docket 1106). He said Boston police recovered 819 illegal firearms in 2025, that 73 of the 470 firearm arrests that year were of juveniles, and that 54 recovered crime guns were privately made "ghost guns" (watch at 5:10:40). The order has been in the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee for 154 days, with no hearing in our records. A school weapons hearing request has also been waiting since March (our Oct. 30 story).

The council's positions

We found no council resolutions this year on Questions 1, 2, 3, 5 or 9 (our Oct. 27 story).

What's next

The city expects to post unofficial precinct-level results during the day Wednesday. It must certify official results by Nov. 18. Statewide certification is expected in early December, WBUR reported.