According to unscientific exit polling, early voting is projected to win by a landslide on Martha’s Vineyard.
Voters were waiting outside early voting locations before they opened in several Island towns Monday morning, as Massachusetts town clerks officially started collecting ballots two weeks before the traditional election day. This year, election day falls on Nov. 8.
“I knew who I wanted to vote for, so why not just get it over with,” said Jim Brooks, shortly after casting his early ballot in Oak Bluffs.
He was one of about a dozen voters who turned up at a room in the basement of town hall, next to the town clerk’s office, to exercise their franchise in the first hour the polls were open.
Registrar Anne Cummings was checking people off the list of registered voters, and marveling at the 1905 ballot boxes the town is using to collect votes. She noted that ballots for Theodore Roosevelt were very likely among the first votes that landed in the hefty wooden boxes.
“Think how many presidents have been voted for in this box,” Ms. Cummings said. “We’re looking at a box that our great, great, great-grandparents used.”
Oak Bluffs town clerk Laura Johnston said everything went smoothly after the polls opened. Each voter signs a ballot envelope under penalty of perjury, and then seals the specially designated ballot inside. The envelopes will be kept under seal until election day, when they will be opened and counted.
“It’s set up like a mini election room,” Ms. Johnston said. “From what I’ve heard it has been wonderful.”
Approximately 300 absentee ballots have already been mailed to the town clerk. Absentee ballot activity in several towns, as well as an increase in voter registrations, have town clerks anticipating a high turnout for the election of a president, a congressman, the Dukes County Commission, and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
In Edgartown, there was a short wait to cast early ballots. More than 50 people arrived at the town clerk’s office to vote in the first few hours of polling Monday morning. Among them was selectman Michael Donaroma.
“It’s convenient,” Mr. Donaroma said. “You don’t have to rush in at the end of the day, if your mind is made up.”
A number of voters said they would be off-Island soon, and early voting in person was easier than using an absentee ballot.
Three polling stations are set up in the cramped office of Tisbury town clerk Hillary Conklin, and the tight quarters have already caused some shifting of business other than voting.
“More difficult for us, more convenient for the voters,” Ms. Conklin said. “I can fit three at a time, so far we’ve only had two at a time.”
About a dozen Tisbury voters had filled out their ballots by 10:30 Monday morning. In West Tisbury, a steady trickle of voters stepped into town hall to cast votes.
“People are utilizing it and I think that’s great,” said town clerk Tara Whiting. “I haven’t added any extra staff. We’ve had a few people volunteer. If it exploded, I could call people in.”
Eric Whitman found early voting more convenient than showing up at the West Tisbury public service building on election day.
“I was just going by and saw some empty parking spaces,” Mr. Whitman said. “Sometimes when you go to the fire station, the line is out the door.”
A total of 34 states, and the District of Columbia now have early voting systems in place, in addition to absentee balloting. Massachusetts joins those states for the first time this year, following a voting reform bill signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014.
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