The Friends of Dicken Woods do not get involved in politics. But a broader coalition of neighbors – the South Maple Group [http://www.southmaple.org] – had just lost a difficult fight over the 42 North development within the 5-7 precinct.

It was not the South Maple group that brought support to Mr. Anglin. Rather, he introduced us to residents of 5-7 who joined our opposition to 42 North. Council Member Anglin was a strong ally of the neighbors in that effort. It is his strong support of neighborhoods that earns him our respect.

Yousef Rabhi didn’t run a student-only campaign but reached out to a broad spectrum of District 11 voters. He had a long history of involvement in the Ann Arbor Democratic Party and many friends of all ages.

I have previously passed out campaign flyers at the polls in primary and general elections in Ann Arbor and have noticed that some precincts are almost all student voters from U-M in in general elections. The number of U-M students voting in the primary elections is far less.

In 2008, about 10,000 new U-M student voters registered and attempts were made in the general election to target these precincts that had large student voter registrations.

In 2009, Hatim Elhady bypassed the Democratic City Council primary in the Fourth Ward and filed as an independent candidate against Marcia Higgins in the general election to try and take advantage of the perceived role of the student vote – but his strategy backfired as many Ann Arbor Democratic Party leaders had predicted.

The current idea of having a partisan municipal primary in August is rare in Michigan and one that I believe unfairly and likely intentionally skews the playing field against the student voting population.

Youseh Rabhi is the only U-M student in recent years that has bucked this trend and gotten elected as a student, albeit at the county level.

In the technical terms of Google Maps, “darker” corresponds to “more opaque” and “lighter” corresponds to “less opaque.” Precinct 2-2 in Map F is “darkest” for the green color (100% opacity for the color) compared with Precinct 2-2 in Map H which is “lightest” for that green color (0% opacity for the color or completely clear).

On analogy with using crayons to color something, the harder you press, the more color you lay down, and the “darker” that color is. If you ask a kid to “make it darker” then she’ll bear down more with the crayon. If you do that against a relatively dark background (like the satellite map), then “darker” is going to be brighter.

We went with a common descriptive term instead of using “opacity” because we figured that term would not be accessible to many readers. It’s possible that “brighter” and “dimmer” as a contrastive pair instead of “darker” and “lighter” could have been a better choice.

In any case, the percentage opacity of the colors does match the percentage of the vote received by the candidate. I hope you’ll find it possible to interpret all the maps based on the contrast between precinct 2-2 in maps F and H, even if you think to yourself, “Okay, but that’s not what ‘darker’ means.”

What I have counseled candidates about primaries in particular is that it is all about getting your own voters out. It isn’t about what the pool of voters in your ward think. It is about what the people who care enough about you and what you are saying think. It doesn’t matter what the general mass of voters’ opinions are. It is whether they are sufficiently motivated to vote.

I live in 5-10 and I’ve noted a lot of Mike signs along Sunset. On the other hand, Neal Elyakin signs along his immediate location on Red Oak are dense.

As you say, it’s about who has a personal interest.