Voting information:
• The polls are open today from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
• Visit 
www.cityofboston.gov for information about your specific polling location, lists of candidates, future voter registration deadlines and other information.
Updated 20:58, September the 21st, 2009
Who will be the last men standing?
Polls open in the preliminary mayoral election, voters will cut the field of candidates down to two. Where they stand on key issues facing the city
Voters will head to the polls today for the city's preliminary election, amid a mayoral campaign in which Mayor Thomas Menino has absorbed a wave of criticism from his three challengers following an e-mail deletion controversy at City Hall.
Menino is seeking a fifth-term as mayor and faces City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon and businessman Kevin McCrea. The top two candidates will move on to face off in the general election Nov. 3. For the other two, their campaign trail will reach the end of the line.
Here’s a roundup on where the candidates stand on several key issues:
| Whee they stand | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reducing Crime |
Public Transportation |
Going Green |
Public Education |
|
| Flaherty | More street workers with later hours, diversify police command staff, more year-round and summer jobs for youths |
Promote greater investment in public transit to create construction jobs and cleaner air | Create a green jobs corps and a green vocational school, make city buildings more energy efficient |
Lift cap on charter schools, give teachers and principals greater autonomy with higher accountability standards |
| McCrea | Improving school system and shifting cops from police details to streets |
Raise gas tax to pay for public transit and push for state to relieve MBTA of its debt | More energy efficient light bulbs, buildings and non-essential city vehicles, youth job training for green jobs |
Spend one day a week in public schools, implement four-year education reform, address city’s costly busing program |
| Menino |
Continue community policing and lead with a mindset of “intervention, prevention and enforcement” |
Promote expansion of T access with projects such as Silver Line and Urban Ring |
Make Boston more bike-friendly, continue strong green building standards, single-stream recycling program |
Filed legislation for in-district charter schools and target low-performing schools to push for progress |
| Yoon |
Bring back civilian review board, reorganize officer advancement based on performance, facilitate greater resident feedback for police department |
Greater regional planning and cooperation to promote increased access and ridership |
Review drinking fountains and cancel bottled water contracts, reduce city vehicle fleet with Zipcar-like model, incentives for green roofs |
Lift cap on charter schools, partner more with area colleges, create part-elected, part-appointed school committee |
How the candidates differ
• Sam Yoon is the Harvard-educated former urban teacher and community organizer who emerged on the city’s political scene four years ago to earn a city council seat. He has cast himself as an outside-the-box thinker to connect with a newer, changing Boston.
• Michael Flaherty is a former prosecutor who has worked his way up through city government. He stands as the candidate who is a bridge between the old and new Boston, balancing his strong understanding of Boston politics with a new outlook on how city government should be run.
• Thomas Menino has long been a fixture of Boston politics, spending nine years as a city councilor prior to taking over as mayor in 1993. He’s known as a hands-on mayor with strong people skills who has touted the city’s progress on issues such as crime, education and the environment during his four-term tenure.
• Kevin McCrea, a South End businessman, has positioned himself as a political outsider running “as a citizen, an ordinary member of the community” who speaks for residents tired of the what he calls “business as usual” at City Hall.