To let us know what is happening. If you have an extra moment and an internet connection, please tell us what is going on where you are: how people feel, what you see, what you think. If you work for a campaign, comment. If you’re an interested citizen, comment. A member of the media, comment. We’d like to break the record for first-time posters today — and we’re well on our way.
Please share widely!
It is appropriately slow here. I may stop down the Berkman Center to say hi.
I went to the poll around 8:30 AM in my small WMA town of Southampton. There was one guy with signs for Deval and one guy with signs for the collection of Republicans running in various races. I expect on the way home it will be busier in that regard. There was a steady stream of voters. Over the last week a proliferation of Healey signs went up along the public ways, but I don’t think that means she’s going to get many votes. The mood at work is positive. Hopeful for a change at the top. Almost giddy.
At my Boston polling spot, there were way fewer campaign volunteers outside than for the primary, but way more voters. It was about a 15 minute wait to get through the line into the building–somewhat unusual at mid-morning for a non-presidential year, I think. Patrick had a sign-holder/voter-greeter present, as did Wilkerson.
It just occurred to me that there was no one from Wilkerson or Diaz’s campaign and my polling place in the South End. Strange. We had Wilkerson and Chang-Diaz volunteers for the primary.
Also the South End, YWCA on Berkeley Street.
<
p>
Forgot to mention, there was a “Samiyah!” drive-by with loud dance music playing while I was waiting in line, too. LOL
I guess they made it out by the time you got there. I think the only people I saw were for Patrick and Procaccianti.
Okay, so I went and voted this morning.
<
p>
The only people outside my voting place at 9:30am were Patrick supporters and Question 3 supporters. (Does Healey still have a campaign?)
<
p>
Inside, things were pretty quiet with more election officals (average age: 72) than voters (average age: 37).
<
p>
Thanks in part to Blue Mass Group, I did not cast an all-Democratic ballot. I voted Stein for Sect’y of the Commonwealth. I voted for Tisei for State Sen. (unopposed — but generally a good guy for a Repug).
<
p>
I then got to State Rep and froze. I really hadn’t considered what to do. Donato (D) is running unopposed. His position against equal marriage makes it impossible for me to vote for him. I ended up casting a blank ballot.
<
p>
Please, please, please, some progressive out there needs to Sciortino Donato.
<
p>
Anyway, I voted. And because I used nice, optical scan ballots with real thick black markers on real paper, I know my vote counted.
<
p>
Go Deval! Go!
My experience in Medford was nearly identical but I voted at 7:30, the Question 3 folks were Question 1 folks, and there was a lone Frisoli supporter.
<
p>
What I really wanted to comment on was the fact that I too cast a blank ballot in the State Rep race for the exact same reason and really wish there was someone to vote for. Who is there to present an alternative to Donato?
<
p>
On a different note, Deval passed by Boloco downtown when I was getting my burrito for lunch. Go Deval!
When polls opened, at least one polling place in town had a 30-person line waiting to vote, which our poll watcher said was completely out of the ordinary. At about 11:30, I stood in a line to vote, something I can’t ever remember doing in this town, and was number 700. Poll watchers at my precinct say turnout is larger even than during presidential elections. Two Patrick/Murray signs and no Healey signs at my precinct. In fact, very few Healey signs reported throughout the town, while we have several people holding Patrick/Murray signs everywhere, all day.
Voted right at 7am, then dropped the hubby off at the train and went back to the Highlands to stand out at the Bailey School – which my visibility coordinator had managed to fill at the last minute, so I went to the Pyne School off Rogers St to stand there for a friend of mine, who had to be late (and to whom I needed to deliver a sign anyway).
<
p>
Both places, no one but us Patrick people holding signs, and lots of thumbs-up from people coming in. All but one person was very pleasant to me (though I’m sure some of them were voting for the other guys) – this one older lady made a sour face at me and vehemently gave me the thumbs down. She didn’t stop until she turned the corner on the sidewalk. Yeah, that makes me like your candidate more. Not. Other than that, though, some REALLY enthused people.
<
p>
We are also going through a call list of generally less interested Dems and such, and finding a relative decent percentage of them tell us they are definitely going out to vote for Deval or already did! I can’t wait to see what the turnout was here, it seemed very steady at the Pyne and so far as I know that’s only a medium-turnout area. Bet the Reilly School was packed!
<
p>
We’ve gone through, I’d say, 65% or more of our total calls, and with quite a bit of time to finish them, I wouldn’t be surprised if we increased the turnout here a little bit.
The people in the office we’re using for GOTV calls have said they have NEVER seen the turnout in the middle of the day that they did when they just went out to the polls this afternoon. Generally there’s a rush at the beginning, and after work, but the daytime is dead.
<
p>
My poll visibility people that I’ve talked to say the same thing.
<
p>
I’d be making calls myself instead of being on the internet checking blogs, but my throat kills…I think I literally strained my vocal cords these last few days. Oy.
The great barrington precinct has had heavy turnout all day…it’s nice to personally know everyone at the polls
In addition to posting here, anyone experiencing trouble voting should call one of the two (or more) national voter hotlines. 1-866-MyVote1 sponsored by Common Cause, SEIU, UPenn, NBC and others, patches voters through to local elections officials and records verbal accounts of trouble. The election protection line, 1-866-OurVote, sponsored by a wide variety of organizations and led by the Lawyers Committee for Civil rights, will connect voters to lawyers who can help resolve more serious problems. Data from both lines will be analyzed to highlight voting problems and to help build the case for reform.
600 people at 1:45pm, ward 5-1.
<
p>
Once I voted there around 3pm and I was number 84….
Worked the polls for Patrick from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard. Steady flow of voters. Poll workers said numbers at mid-day indicated turnout on pace to clear 60% (island turnout has been as high as 81% in past gubernatorial election years). Island Dems are energized and active. No sign of the opposition at the polls or elsewhere.
I’ve been calling all the town clerks to get #’s for returns later, and ALL of them say they are way ahead of primary. Heavy turnout throughout Cape & Islands.
There was much more people than I expected here in Ward 7, precint 2 in Somerville at around 10:30 this morning. I had to wait in a short line to initially get my ballot and most of the booths were occupied.
<
p>
There were 2 Patrick supporters with signs outside and no other supporters for candidates or Questions.
<
p>
Let’s hope all those Patrick supporters turn out today. And may I also add this is the first time (in my very short voting history) that I’ve voted Democrat at the top the ticket!
I have been volunteering to help with the get out the efforts in the Asian communities across Massachusetts. A group of us who are multilingual are reaching out and finding that there are many more than expected at least in the Asian American community who are energized and plan on voting! I can only assume that this is happening across the state in all neighborhoods and ethnic communities as well.
We have several rising precincts with minorities in Lowell and it seems the turnout in those is definitely, well, rising!
Voted at the Codman Square Apartments today 784 Washington Street around 1:30pm.
<
p>
In the 90 seconds I spent walking down Washington Street, I was greeted by no less than three GOTV-mobiles, two SUVs with blue Patrick/Murray signs and megaphones blaring recorded GOTV messages. A third vehicle, a black, early 90s Mercedes covered with Patrick/Murray stickers and horn blaring with enthusiasm.
<
p>
Very little visability at the polling spot – one lonely Muffy sign and a supporter holding two Deval signs. It was fairly slow, no line. I cast the 479th ballot at the Codman Square Apartments polling station.
We moved to DC in July. But before we left, we donated to Deval, John Bonifaz, and Claire Naughton as well as obtaining an absentee ballot.
<
p>
We’re having an election night party tonight. Almost half the people are either from Massachusetts or are former Massachusetts residents.
<
p>
We’ll be toasting Deval’s victory from Capitol Hill tonight!
My roommate and I went to vote (in our old ward & precinct, Somerville W2P3) around 8:15 this morning. There wasn’t much of a line – I’d say about 10 people ahead of us, which is more than for primaries etc. but many fewer than the 45-minute wait, 80-odd-person line we had around the same time of day for the 2004 national election.
<
p>
Folks outside with leaflets &/or signs: No on 5/6, Yes on 4, and I forget who else. Can’t recall if there were any Deval folks, but this is a precint that should go very heavily Deval so if there weren’t visibility folks it’s not a surprise.
<
p>
The guy ahead of me in line turned out not to be on the books, though he said he’d voted at the same place the year before and nothing about his situation had changed. He was referred to a specific volunteer. I saw another person get referred to this volunteer while I was there, and it seemed to work out for them, as far as I could tell. As I was leaving the guy who’d been ahead of me was returning to the table for getting ballots, though I’m not sure if his was going to have to be provisional or not.
<
p>
It was gratifying that I knew enough about every race or issue to know ahead of time how I was voting. As always I’m grateful for being able to vote using Somerville’s black marker connect-the-arrow paper ballots, since at least I know there’s a paper trail. Now if only they had individual tear-offs that I could later use to identify my own vote in case of question, the way I hear they do in San Francisco.
<
p>
Is it time to go home and vote yet?
W21 P1 (fenway) was great when I voted earlier in the day. Couple people in line, and a bunch filling out ballots.
<
p>
Also, dont forget to come down to the Hynes Convention Center when all is said and done…. it’s shaping up to be a great event!
<
p>
GOTV!
I drove all over hell and gone in Berkshire County, delivering signs, pizza, money — anything that would get us votes (hey, just kidding about the money!).
<
p>
<
p>
Every poll worker I chatted with (and not all were with our Coordinated Campaign — some were holding signs for local offices) told me the turnout was very heavy.
<
p>
Our Lee coordinator called me around 1 o’clock to tell me they’d just registered vote #1000 — which may not sound like much to city folk, but that’s more than 25% of the number of registered voters in town, and that was only halfway through the day!
<
p>
In Pittsfield, poll workers told us that many precincts had topped 25% by 11 o’clock!
<
p>
The mood everywhere was one of optimism — lots of smiles. It’s a great day to be a Democrat!
<
p>
Hope to see many of you tonight.
i was vote 502 of 1500 had a patrick/murray sign for 6 hours no healy signs anywhere in newbedford no sense in it as tim murray told me newbeford and fallriver are the highest percent of registered voters enrolled as democrats in state just hope for a big turnout 42-45% would be a good thing. go deval go!!!