Don’t forget to vote! This is your primary day open thread. Let us know what you’re seeing out there.
UPDATE: Unofficial reports on Twitter and elsewhere are saying that Pat Jehlen has easily won her primary against Leland Cheung. This source claims something like 14,000 votes for Jehlen to 4,000 for Cheung. Brava Pat!
Please share widely!
I was voter number 76 at Ward 5, precinct 2, Somerville.
The poll worker said it’s a good early (two hours) turnout for a primary.
In my town (Shrewsbury) there are no contested primaries. Even the general election (except for the POTUS race) is barely contested as the non-incumbent challengers aren’t viable competitors.
So should I go vote just for the sake of bragging that I voted? That I made a choice between the incumbent and choosing a write-in? I like my Democratic incumbents and I’ll vote for them but there’s absolutely no way at all they could loose.
Should I vote just so there’s a record that I voted so my local campaigning officials know that I’m a dedicated reliable Democratic voter?
Or is voting in a pointless election a fetish?
I certainly encourage people to vote in contested elections, but that’s not the case where I live.
So why bother?
The fact that you actually went to the polls and voted will put you in the database as a supervoter, and candidates will treat you with respect, mailings, and robocalls.
I am a local officeholder, and every time my name is on the ballot, the local media checks on the voting record of all the candidates. I have a perfect record of voting in every election for as long as I have been registered to vote. For me, that’s a source of pride alone, and it looks really good against the folks who vote with less regularity.
From the campaign management side, it helps us identify who the best people to talk to are, who would be most receptive to phone banking and door knocking, and they’ve been the most knowledgable voters in all my interactions.
In our last town election, we had 30,922 registered voters. 4,769 showed up at the polls.
Can I afford to send mail to 30,922 voters? No way, unless Democrats for Education Reform suddenly steps in with boatloads of cash. Can I afford to send mail to 4,769 voters? If I have a good database manager who can merge families, and get that list down to about 3,000 voters, possibly. That list of voters is a pretty good predictor of who is going to show up at the next election. If I have voter data for a particularly sleepy election, those voters are the supervoters, and if I need to cut down the mailing, those are the voters who are going to get my postcard.
Would I like to send mail to folks who don’t vote? Encourage civic participation? Build awareness of local elections? Sure. I just can’t afford to do that. So, if you want my attention, and my campaign mailing, become a supervoter.
… they’ll stop calling?
This is sorely tempting.
If you are a supervoter you will get persuasion calls in contested races, but maybe not GOTV calls. If your voting record is inconsistent you’ll start getting GOTV calls.
it means the big money campaigns and corporate-funded campaigns will call you, desperate for a different pool of (less informed) voters, and not the progressives who are running campaigns driven by data but with more limited budgets.
Simple pride in our democracy is one reason.
But here is another: when there is one candidate on the ballot, you have three choices:
1. Not vote at all
2. Vote blank in that race
3. Vote for the candidate in that race.
Option (1) provides very little information. Option 2 and 3, however, provide more information. If you vote for that person, you’re expressing a net positive impression. If you blank that race, you’re expressing that you have a net neutral or negative impression. Either you don’t like the candidate or you don’t know the candidate. That is information that, in aggregate, communicates a useful message both to that candidate and to potential primary challengers the next time that candidate is up for re-election.
…you can also write someone in.
Q: Why should I vote when there’s nothing to vote for?
A1) Because then it’s easier for campaigns to send you their mail
A2) Because it sends a slightly less vague message about what you believe than not voting at all
A3) Because if you are an officeholder, you will want to prove you always vote. And if you don’t run for office, it’s a point of pride to vote in obscure elections.
Can we all acknowledge for a second that these are totally bizarre answers (who votes because they want to be listed in a database a certain way???) to a legitimate question?
When no democracy is offered, partisans have to grasp at straws to make a case to participate.
The hurdle to get on the ballot is quite low. Democracy was offered. The problem is that often, only a single person chooses to accept the offer.
And P.S. you willfully left out my initial answer — Pride in America.
Not much choice offered to the voters. Sure, somebody could have stepped up to run, but they didn’t. Now that they didn’t, why bother voting?
For the record, I voted (there was a competitive race or two in my district). But if there weren’t, I can demonstrate my pride in America in any number of other ways (doing volunteer work, hoisting a flag, etc.). Rather than filling in a bubble to make a choice when there really is no choice.
Your type of pride in America feels more like singing the national anthem to an empty room.
Every candidate has a good number of volunteers, we are all nice and swapping storie, sharing coffee and keeping it positive. I’m managing a team of five. We are running against ourselves and the clock, not the other candidates. I’m confident we identified the voters we need to show up, but we will see how our hard work pays off tonight. The clerks have said they will have same day results even if it takes all night to count the votes-all write in.
i was vote # 20 at 8 am in Wakefield, Precinct 3 for the Ninth Essex District State Representative contest. My candidate, Jen Migliore, is fighting it out for the Democratic nomination with her opponent, Saritin Rizzuto. The winner will face off against the conservative Republican incumbent, Donald Wong, in November.
Give ’em hell, Jen !
P.S. Jen responds by channeling Harry Truman : ” I don’t give ’em hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” 🙂
Fred Rich LaRiccia
Campaign Manager
The Migliore Committee
Jen is endorsed by the UIP and we shared a great intern this summer, I made sure both of my parents are voting for her. Wong has got to go, and she’s the best candidate to do it.
that the UIP would be endorsing a Democrat
That’s how it works. Greens, Libertarians have endorsed R’s, D’s and each other….when it is beneficial for them to do so.
I can see individual candidates or members of parties endorsing candidates in uncontested races, but the party itself endorsing, particularly one that is fighting for its very existence, is out of the ordinary.
Incidentally, they are backing the right candidate. Jen is fantastic and will make us proud.
1021 for all precincts.
Where I am.
I know everyone here knows, but more informational in case anyone asks.
You can point them to this link:
http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.aspx
…..just 380 votes cast, 47 in the past hour. As of 1pm. In a town of 25,000.
Town Clerk had predicted 10% turnout, now says trending more like 6-7%. There were 64 absentee ballots cast.
Not much else on the ballot beside Harrington/Timilton. Rep. Claire Cronin has a young, write-in Republican trying to get the min. number needed to face her in the general, and early indications show local republicans giving her unaccustomed scrutiny; her fundraising sources and voting record have become more active topics on local message boards.
I was number 8 in my precinct, 12 in my ward at 7:45. One race on the ballot in Beverly; the hotly contested Essex County Sheriff”s race.
Steady here in Methuen, seniors, parents voting as they drop off/pick up kids.
We’re thinking 10-12 percent turnout.
Haven’t gone inside yet!
And recommendations for Sheriff?
IIRC he is running to her left and specifically favors single payer health care.
He’s certainly an outsider – no local political activity at all from him or his family prior to his entering the race. Single payer means dumping the ACA – I don’t think single-payer proponents have thought it through. I like Linda on prison reform, her success in getting extra funding for our high school and drugs counseling, and her stances on opioid crisis and legalizing recreational pot.
Turnout really low; only real race is Koutoujian.
We have a bit more excitement than some because Ellen Story’s House seat is available, with the D primary being decisive. There are six candidates, all of whom say reasonably progressive things — I am voting for my neighbor Larry O’Brien. When I voted there were five sign-holders at the intersection next to the polling place, two for House candidate Vira Doungmany Cage, two for (favored) Sheriff candidate Pat Cahillane, and one for Sheriff candidate Melissa Perry (not the former MSNBC host). We also have a contested race for WMass
Governor’s Council.
N/T
Shortly after 1:00 I was only the 48th voter:(
My and my fellow volunteers are the only ones under 35 around here too. Another example of my generation staying home instead of showing up. This isn’t the case with my friends in Cambridge/Somerville at least. A lot of excitement for Jehelen and Connolly.
…at least if I’m interpreting Rep. Linda Dean Campbell’s FB post correctly – she received just over 1500 votes and her opponent just over 300. I think that post was in reference to the entire district and thus fewer than 1900 votes were cast.
I was voter 252, precinct 1 in Saugus around 5:30pm.
I enthusiastically voted for Jen Migliore (State Rep).
I was leaning heavily towards O’Reilly for Essex Sheriff, but ended up filling in the bubble for Coppinger.
We had 250 voters at 3 PM. We have contested state rep race, however, with six candidates.
Unofficial results: Jen Migliore wins primary
Sorry about that….
Link
https://m.facebook.com/Newsaugusvoters/
…at 27,927 votes (7.0%) as of the six o’clock count.
Cambridge 6:00 numbers are 9,443 (14.0%).
I’m having trouble finding a URL that promises election results when they’re ready.
It’s no wonder nobody votes, it’s easier to find the score of the most recent Spinners game.
I guess MassLive will have it, if you don’t mind blocking the ads and doing a lot of scrolling.
We’ll see if this is true.
It seems that Jehlen won big.
I’m also hearing that Mike Connolly won, which would be a shocker.
Wow.
Lauren Dezenski (The Politico reporter for MA)
But an impressive victory. I owe some people drinks.
Waiting for the write in’s to be counted, but there will be no need for a state committee session to pick the nominee. The two Democratic campaigns did a good job with their voters.
I don’t like the new law. The caucus method had at least some claim to be representative.
I did a little preliminary research and Massachusetts is the only state that permits some early voting but prohibits it in the primaries and in municipal elections.
The primaries are where the majority of the contests are, but the current law is most restrictive for these races. When you consider the abysmal turnout in the primaries it amounts to de facto voter suppression.
Would love to see both.