What did you see at your polling place? What’s the word on the street? Inquiring minds want to know…
UPDATE (Charley): Well, I was definitely not expecting Gomez to clean up like he did. This should tell us that we need to be on our game. The general election is Tuesday, June 25. The time is now to start marking off chunks of our calendars to help get out the vote.
Ed Markey is a great champion against climate change, for consumers, for the average person vs. our oligarchic politics of The-Rich-Shall-Inherit-The-Earth. He will be a terrific partner to Elizabeth Warren in the Senate — we will truly have the best Senate delegation in the US.
Let’s bring it home.
Please share widely!
I was #41 a little before 8 am. Certainly a far cry from election day in November – no line, only one sign-holder (for Lynch), and it looked like a trickle of people but no more than that.
6-1 has a pollchecker for Markey, but no signholder. We’re focusing far more on direct voter contact one on one, house by house.
Overall, yes, very low turnout in general it seems. We’re aiming to change that and really push people to get out and vote!
And, David, if you wanna stop by Medford for Markey HQ, we’re at 23 Forest St. in Medford Center, right across from the post office. Would love to see you. Can you help us go door to door for a canvass shift today from 4-8?
went to the Kate Donoghue school of GOTV. 😉
I was in California for a family wedding. I searched for the only other Mass voters there. I lobbied them heavily. Only one was going to be back on time. She told me she would vote. I asked her last name and told her that I would be checking!
nt
Are an outstanding Democrat!
They must draw straws to sit next to you at family weddings! : )
Voter #23 at a quarter to 8. No line, no sign holders, but a good half dozen voters in the room.
I was the only voter at Waltham 9-2 at about 815 am. I did not check the machine for the vote count. Woops. No sign holders. One poll watcher (unknown campaign). I am having a democracy sad.
I was #42 this morning just before 8 AM. No line and there were only a handful of folks coming in as I was leaving. Only people out were for John Connolly’s mayoral campaign and the only signs were for the mayor’s race.
At Ward 9 Precinct 2 in Worcester. 3 precincts vote at this location. On the slow side but not as slow as I expected. Folks in these precincts always vote so it’s a good use of resources. Lynch isn’t poll checking. Can’t tell if there are sign holders because I’ve been in here since 6:40.
I entered around 9am and I was number 107 to vote. There was a trickles of people coming in. I suppose people voting before they went to work, so I expect it to slow down during the day. No sign holders of any sort, which is probably the first time I have not seen any in a very long time. The Mayor is puling for Markey. I am glad I can get a little peace without the constant calls about who to vote for today.
And don’t doubt he will deliver the votes. He pushed his sister over the top for Registrar of Deeds. He knows how to get his people to the polls.
Local scuttlebutt was that Mayor Curtatone was NOT campaigning on behalf of his sister, and was in fact supporting a competitor. I’m relatively new to Somerville, though (only three years here), so I’m not at all connected to solid sources for such things.
that, early in the race, he told the paper he was close with virtually all the candidates and he gave contributions (like $100) to several candidates in addition to his sister. I thought that was a bit strange. No inside info though!
Heard he did robocalls for her, but maybe that wasn’t true. Either way he is certainly a proven vote getter in Somerville.
10,807 Votes
2.78% Turnout
I just voted at about 9:50. I was No. 93. No signs or pollwatchers for any candidate.
Last November we had, IIRC, 79% turnout citywide, and almost that in our precinct. We ended up with about 1250 voters. We had 93 votes in by 8 AM. So today’s count seems far behind, but nobody expected 79% turnout for this primary. In November we had a large number of votes after people got home from work, so here’s hoping we can work the phones and doors and make sure supporters show up.
The under 30 turnout will be quite low, I have gotten a couple of friends on facebook to the polls with quick summaries of the two candidates positions on the issues, most did not realize there was a difference and did not realize the election was today. I wonder if Markey had access to the OFA database to get young people to the polls, call him up and rouse them to vote.
If you know anyone under 30 who is undecided or hasn’t voted it’s pretty simple. Lynch is anti-choice, anti equality, anti obamacare, anti climate action-Markey is for women’s rights, for equality, for obamacare, and in favor of reversing climate change. Those four issues are most important to the under 30 vote and should be explained that simply.
East Cambridge has more Lynch than Markey signs at their polls, we need to get people there.
who is, I believe, in his 20s is saying he lives in Brighton and hasn’t heard from the Markey campaign at all. He says many people over there didn’t know there was a primary today. Here in Newton, I got several calls and a knock on the door over the weekend. Brighton is a place with many younger voters who might slip through the cracks.
I don’t worry too much about signs. The Markey campaign seems to have gone with the thinking that signs are among the least productive ways to deploy resources.
Solid number of my friends live in Allston, Brookline, and Somerville, as well as Cambridge and NOBODY has been contacted. A few were big time OFA volunteers too. Markey seems to have dropped the ball here. I got some friends at Hampshire College to go to the polls out there and they’ve reported very few students out in West MA either. I do know my Harvard friends who work(ed) for EW went to the polls in bigger numbers. Assumed my ma was voting but dad said she didn’t want to go, got her to go over the phone. Keep it up people!
I didn’t get contacted either.
The last crosstabs I looked at showed Markey winning the older vote overwhelming, and Lynch with a solid lead with the younger vote. The crosstabs also showed Lynch doing quite well with Hispanics and African Americans.
In an odd way, a low turnout election might actually favor Markey this time.
I voted today at 11:15. I was the only person voting. The polling place had two precincts. For each precinct, there were two people for me check-in, and there were two people to check-out. So, with the two precincts, that’s eight workers doing nothing. And, there was a policeman there, who was also doing nothing.
Half of the cost of holding an election is paying for the unneeded police detail. Towns try to save money by putting multiple precincts in the same location. That causes people to travel further than necessary to vote.
And, the requirement that there be two people always present to check-out a voter means that there towns have less money for people to check-in. It’s one of the reasons that there are such long lines.
We need to replace Galvin with somebody who encourages people to vote.
This has been a long time goal of many progressives. Also we see what active Secretary of State’s have done in CT, IL, and other places as consumer protection advocates and clean government proponents and it’s just not the case with Galvin.
they got him to do some TV ads reminding people about the primary. I’ve seen them several times and I don’t even watch much TV.
and how did “they” get him to do TV ads?
By telling him it keeps his visibility high and helps his re-election?
They keep electing Bill Galvin as Secretary of the Commonwealth.
I voted at around 11:15a, I was number 165. I was the only voter present. I saw one rather lonely Markey sign outside, no Lynch signs, no GOP presence at all, and no volunteers for any candidate.
Plenty of sign holders for Lynch at the Holy Name rotary, which hosts voting for multiple precincts, but very few actual voters. Turnout looks to be extremely low there. Markey has zero campaign presence in this neighborhood, so hopefully that is a good sign.
There were quite a number of mayoral campaign signs up, and Dan Conley was there shaking hands next to a woman handing out Dan Connolly literature.
Volunteers who are sign holding at polls are not out canvassing or phone banking. Let them hold a gazillion signs…
n/t
all these hibernians straight…
when they are not straight, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more, a nods as good as a wink to a blind bat, aye?
n/t
24401 Votes
6.27% Turnout
I had to wait FOREVER to vote! OK, jk. I went in at 12:20 during the lunch rush, which meant one person in front of me. As I left, one other person was arriving.
I was voter 298.
No sign-holders. There was a poll checker, but I forgot to ask which campaign they were from. I guess I was distracted by the swirl of civic engagement happening around me in that cavernous gymnasium.
Anyone else heard Galvin on the radio talking about how nobody will vote today? What a way *not* to cheerlead the electorate to get out and participate in one of the most important elections for decades. Sheesh.
But thats really low, someone’s gotta challenge this guy again. I’d back Bonifaz this time, if Stein got over her aversion to winning elections maybe she can run as a D. Any of those two would be better than the PoD. Maybe some progressive State Reps or Senators tired of doing nothing in those Chambers? Isn’t Barrios also a former ADA and election attorney, why not him? Mike Sullivan has a 6 year term, maybe there is a year where he can go for SoS without risking his seat? Bueller?
excellent snark.
I interpret those sorts of stories the opposite way. Stories about low turnout always seem to have a subtext of shame, (maybe I’m just projecting though) and also if turnout will be low, that means each individual vote will be worth more. So advertising that turnout will be low should promote higher turnout.
“Projections of voter turnout are low, so your vote is more important than ever. Get out out and vote!” I might agree. But he’ just does the Eeyore routine: Turnout will be bad, unless I’m wrong, which I doubt.”
I was the 71st voter around 12:30. I think this is VERY bad news for Lynch!
I was number 124 at 3:45.
37401 Votes
9.61% Turnout
considering that that’s at least an hour from the start of the evening rush, that could be a lot worse. David Bernstein says those Boston numbers are actually ahead of turnout for the Dec. 2009 special US Senate primary.
The only reason that the Boston numbers are ahead is the State Senate race. The rest of Boston is behind the 2009 rate.
Overall, the turnout for the entire state appears to be worse than 2009.
talked to a few people who vote in Watertown, I called to gently remind them to vote today, they had leaflets hanging on their doors this morning.
Mansfield voter count seems low, 5 districts, approx. 150-180 range in the districts at 3:00pm. I was 1 of 3 people voting when I went. But lots of Republicans who could vote Lynch to spoil, so seems like a good sign.
Republicans can’t vote in Democratic primaries.
But there are some unenrolleds who are philosophically Republicans, just not registered as such. My expectation is that, with a competitive GOP primary, they’d vote in that rather than try to wreak havoc.
is leaving now to specifically vote against Markey, even though he is an “R”. I have been trying to distract him to delay his getting back to Chelmsford in time.
had to be a Chelmsfordian.
I swear, we are surrounded.
I voted in Ward 4, Precinct 1 at the Mackey School. It was almost exactly 5 PM and I actually had to stand in a short line. I was the 307th vote cast in my precinct, which is low, but the heaviest voting time is after people get off work. I have this nightmare of liberals failing to turn out and Lynch winning in an upset. Hoping for the best.
nightmares are not necessarily prophetic! 😉
At 8:30 we were numbers 22 through 29. No signs, the poll watcher was outside having a smoke, and the cop was in his cruiser on Facebook.
In Lawrence my friends from Our Lady of Good Counsel drove 40 seniors to the polls.
My wife just voted at about 5:25 and was # 315. Last month we had an override vote and our precinct had 537 votes. Citywide turnout for the override was only 32% (not sure what turnout in our precinct was). Given the heavier voting patterns in the last two hours, we might come close to that this time.
Unlike some idiot towns, M’boro co-scheduled the primary with their town election. This boosts turnout and saves money…my precinct has a few hundred voting.
I got 5 calls from the Markey campaign to go to one event, which ticked me off…
I was voter #400 at 6:15. No signs, no lines.
52006 Votes
13.36% Turnout
No reason they can’t beat that between 6 and 8.
We voted at 6:15 pm and not another voter in sight. No sign holders or signs for that matter. They had a total tally of 146 voters at that time.
that I know?? 🙂
Little Alford, goes 58-6 for Markey. God bless ’em.
Town by town results from the Telegram.
If those numbers hold-WOW
That is WOW.
Rob Eno called it for him already over at RMG.
U.S. Senate:
EDWARD J MARKEY 5689 (51.02%)
STEPHEN F LYNCH 5423 (48.64%)
Write-in Votes 38 (0.34% )
———–
For State Senate (1 Suffolk):
NICK COLLINS 1804 (61.21%)
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 851 (28.88%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 281 (9.54%)
Write-in Votes 11 (0.37%)
Per AP. He managed to beat two establishment candidates that had stronger local ties, it will be interesting to see how he runs in the general. I said early on he was their most electable candidate, we shouldn’t write him off. An outsider v insider race is not a cakewalk with the Congressional approval ratings.
Also if Markey is holding Lynch under 50% in Boston he is looking at a good night.
In that sense it’s not too surprising, yet I’m surprised. He really came off as a RINO lunkhead in the debates. But he’s the best looking and…a Navy SEAL, as he reminded us at the end of every sentence.
Looks like “I’m a SEAL” is this years “I drive a truck”.
The reaction at RMG is priceless “how could your electorate fall for something so simple?/Personality over policy”-a generation of Fox and Rush has done its worse that’s how.
He’s a moderate legislator from about the same part of the state.
SENATOR IN CONGRESS DEM
Total
Number of Precincts 255
Precincts Reporting 76 29.8 %
Vote For 1
Times Counted 15290/0
Total Votes 15175
Number of Uncast Votes 115
STEPHEN F LYNCH 7716 (50.85%)
EDWARD J MARKEY 7409 (48.82%)
Write-in Votes 50 (0.33%)
————————
Senator in General Court:
NICK COLLINS 2814 (62.26%)
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 1254 (27.74%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 437 (9.67%)
Write-in Votes 15 (0.33%)
Just now on boston.com
57/43 is close to what I was going to call do, but didn’t want to jinx. Onto the general! In my view for all his flaws Gomez is their best shot.Young, moderate and a minority. Debates weren’t the finest moment for Ed, and he will need to run a better retail campaign. But champagne for the victors tonight!
Congressmen Substance beat Congressmen “Iohnwokah”
If there’s a Republican in this race who had a shot — and don’t forget his access to money — it was Gomez.
U.S. Senate
EDWARD J MARKEY 12825 (50.03%)
STEPHEN F LYNCH 12725 (49.64%)
Write-in Votes 85 (0.33%)
—————–
Senator in General Court
NICK COLLINS 5233 (53.77%)
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 3691 (37.93%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 780 (8.01%)
Write-in Votes 28 (0.29%)
“What hell happened? This is so bad.”
“What a joke…I’ve never voted for a democrat in my life and I really don’t know if I can vote for Gomez.”
“Well, look on the bright side: Gomez will get slaughtered in the Special Election, and he’ll be forgotten when the actual General Election comes up.”
“If I supported the President’s positions on gun control and immigration, I’d be very happy now…”
“Ugh. I really don’t want to vote for Gomez. I can vote for some pretty moderate Republicans, but they have to at least support Republicans. Gomez has NEVER done that”
“Seriously? Gomez? And how on earth is Sullivan’s career killing him in the GOP primary? Who the hell is dumb enough to think that running Gomez will do a damn thing for anyone but his consultants?”
On Rob Eno’s post congratulating Gomez and saying it’s “now important for GOP activists to rally behind our nominee” I see one comment:
“Gomez will get no support from me. I’m out.”
Not a happy day for conservatives. I haven’t been paying too much attention to the GOP side since I was focused on Markey vs. Lynch, but I can’t agree that Gomez is their worst choice strategically. Given the Scott Brown debacle of 2010, a moderate-positioned Republican who looks good on TV and boasts military service concerns me. Fortunately for Ed Markey, Gomez has got the Republican brand to contend with, which is more damaging than it was a few years ago.
If you look at BMG you see a lot of happy people because we are well within our party’s mainstream, Lynch was not. But at RMG, all those grassroots activists are way out of their party’s mainstream. Looks like the Red Tide has come and gone…
The irony is they should be happy, Gomez has a real shot.
It’s a neurotoxin.
I hope these and other comments are culled and posted on the front page tomorrow.
My favorite was the one along the lines of “I’m embarrassed to be a Republican”. Oh, now you’re embarrassed to be a Republican? All the rape-y, Bachmann-y, Palin-y, lie-filled bullshit of the past 13 years – that’s cool. Gabriel Gomez? Embarrassment. Ahahahahahahahahaha!!
It is exactly because of reactions like yours that indicate Gomez may give Markey a run for his money. Republicans finally got smart.
Newton: Markey 85, Lynch 15
Waltham: Markey 66, Lynch 34. Dan is an angry man tonight.
…really helped Mike Sullivan. Tea Party fad is over.
U.S. Senate
EDWARD J MARKEY 21650 (50.11%)
STEPHEN F LYNCH 21413 (49.56%)
Write-in Votes 140 (0.32%)
———————–
Senator in General Court
NICK COLLINS 7548 (52.98%)
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 5474 (38.42%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 1185 (8.32%)
Write-in Votes 41 (0.29%)
It’s sort of anticlimactic to obsess on the U.S. Senate race, when the drama is local.
79.2% of ballots counted:
NICK COLLINS 8566 (48.74%)
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 7575 (43.10%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 1366 (7.77%)
Write-in Votes 67 (0.38%)
4,545 votes for Lynch and 4,668 votes for Markey, but less than 2,500 votes cast for all the Republicans combined.
Less than 10% turnout no?
Some other city was more dismal than Lowell…if only for my civic pride…
Worcester had 103,767 registered voters as of last October 12th.
NICK COLLINS 9449 (46.52%)
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 9259 (45.59%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 1520 (7.48%)
Write-in Votes 82 (0.40%)
I think the media may have jumped the gun on calling that one…
Forry leads by 334 votes (9,994 to 9,660).
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 10168 (47.25%)
NICK COLLINS 9686 (45.01%)
The Forry lead expands…
I am calculating, based on reported vote totals in Dem and Rep primaries for Lowell, an 11.6% turnout. I do hope I am missing something.
LINDA DORCENA FORRY 9994 (46.88%)
NICK COLLINS 9660 (45.32%)
MAUREEN DAHILL 1576 (7.39%)
Write-in Votes 87 (0.41%)
And Tito Jackson calls it for Forry:
and Boston.com still has the checkmark next to Collins…#mediafail
Markey won with the Democratic establishment even though he ran a piss poor campaign. This has a very Martha Coakley feel to it. Gomez is an unknown fresh face, so voters can believe whatever they want about him. Markey better start talking about issues like jobs and the economy. If he and his consultants try to go negative on Gomez on guns and abortion, it will backfire. Mass voters don’t want to be told that they have to vote democrat. He is going to have to earn it.
Markey won with the Democratic establishment The meaninglessness of this statement is easy to overlook. It means what? That the Democratic establishment has 310,000 members?
This has a very Martha Coakley feel to it. Now whenever there’s a chance, a chance that a Democrat might lose, a Massachusetts speaker of pundit is required to invoke Martha Coakley. How does it have a Martha Coakley feel? Why, there’s no need to say! It’s obvious! It’s true by grammatical obligation.
If he and his consultants try to go negative on Gomez on guns and abortion, it will backfire. Study after study shows how effective negative campaigning is, but all pundits are required to inveigh against it. In the pundit land where facts are few and conventional wisdom is plentiful, negative campaigning always “backfires”. Perhaps Senator Kelly Ayotte should move to pundit land to be safer from negative campaigning about guns.
Sorry; didn’t mean to down rate. Was trying to see who already had.
If you think he ran a poor campaign you clearly weren’t part of the campaign. He had a great ground game and excellent ads, which BTW were about issues. My understanding is that Gomez is prochoice so running negative on abortion wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
Generally, one judges campaigns by the result. Markey won. For him to have run a “piss poor” campaign and still won, Lynch would have had to run an epically bad campaign. He didn’t.
Indirectly, our Governor has pointed out that campaigns can be good or bad in another respect: do they help or hinder the subsequent functioning of government? However I doubt anyone could accuse Markey of lack of substance.
I know some hardcore Democratic feminist pro-choice women who were extremely turned off by Martha Coakley’s fear-mongering over abortion. Yes, she was correct but a lot of the literature was over the top. I was not one of them — I was wrapped up enough in the campaign to not understand their point. I do in retrospect. My friends, we the activists are in the minority. Most people will start paying some attention to this late in June and, if Gomez continues his RINO talk, Ed Markey has to be careful. I find the comparison with Martha Coakley and Scott Brown quite apt.
If Gomez compares to Scott Brown then we need to be sure that everyone remembers that Brown was moderate too – until he got to DC. However, I think the Markey to Coakley comparison is off base. I don’t think we’ll take a Senate race for granted again anytime soon.
Martha Coakley was a career attorney with ZERO legislative experience. Ed Markey is a career legislator with, if anything, too MUCH legislative experience. Martha Coakley lost because she lacks vision, political chops, genuine empathy, and leadership. Ms. Coakley epitomizes the do-nothing career bureaucrat. Ed Markey will win because he brings to the table a consistent and compelling vision, political skills developed during decades of congressional experience, a gracious and well-developed ability to connect to every voter across the economic spectrum, and leadership skills derived from vision, courage, and experience.
Win or lose, this campaign will NOT be a rerun of Scott Brown versus Martha Coakley.
She’s not a legislator to be sure and there are things I don’t like about her AG/DA career, but if anything those stem from her doing too much. She has been I think largely competent in her prosecutorial positions and even when she ran for Senate you never heard criticism of her AG tenure AND she sailed to re-election to that position.
Pretty easy to do when the Republican had to resort to a write-in campaign. I’d have voted for Larry Frisoli, partly because of a family connection and because so many lawyers I know despise Coakley and her over the top prosecutions. Unfortunately, he was running on a big ‘bring back the death penalty/Coakley soft on crime’ platform so Marsha got my vote with my nose held quite high. She is an elected Carmen Ortiz, can’t hold a candle to Harshbarger or Reilly, but probably following in Bellotti’s shoes just fine. He couldn’t win real elections either I might add.
…the GOP would have fielded one or more stronger candidates who did not need write-ins.
Mass voters don’t care about guns? We have had one officer shot and killed by an armed terrorist who failed a background check Scott Brown would’ve been pressured to vote against. It is a very pressing issue and one where it is entirely germane to question the sincerity of our local Republicans when they say they are ‘independent’ and will ‘buck the leadership’. Ayotte certainly did neither after promising she would do both.
And Gomez is going to say he agrees with that stance. Markey has to frame his negative campaigning very carefully; if he goes nuclear, I agree with Jack that it will backfire.
Get him on record to say he will support the assault ban, the background checks, and the President’s proposals 100%. That will depress the conservative base if he commits to that, if he waffles than Ed can easily demonstrate he has talked the talk and walked the walk on gun control.
He will need to do this on choice, on conscience clauses, on Plan B being over the counter, on marriage equality federally, on ACA. Get him on the record. He will be in the same bind Brown is, toxic with his own base or toxic with the rest of Massachusetts.
I Mike “Getting Tough on Guns” Bloomberg really wants to get tough on Ayotte, he can send her a message by bashing Gomez on this front. Ed is clearly stronger on this issue.