Granted, the Special State Election ballot was short: The choices for state representative of the 37th Middlesex District were Democrat Dan Sena and Republican Cathy Clark. And many people had voted by absentee or early ballots. Still, it wasn’t until 10:45 a.m. that a person had to wait in line to vote on June 2, a beautiful spring day with birds singing outside the Bromfield School cafeteria.
I had walked right up to a table with hand sanitizer and masks just inside the open doorway; no waiting along the outside tape with signs about distancing 6 feet apart. Then I moved to the table where a masked poll worker checked me in from behind a plexiglass shield. When I received the ballot with a pen, I was told that I could keep the pen or put it in the box with other discarded pens. (I kept the pen.) The two voting booths were widely spaced and sanitized often. Then I checked out with another masked poll worker behind another plexiglass shield. I slipped the ballot into the no-touch machine, stationed right by the open door. More hand sanitizer and I was out.
If a voter came in who could not tolerate a mask for some reason, an area had been set aside away from the main flow of voters.
Town Clerk Marlene Kenney had sought to encourage voting by mail (through early or absentee ballots) to reduce the numbers of in-person voters, to increase the personal protective equipment for the poll workers, and to allow for social distancing. A poll worker told me that Kenney was on the lookout for unanticipated patterns of behavior that could undermine all those precautions. Every voter I spoke with after they had voted felt comfortable and safe with the process.
When I asked people why they voted in person rather than by early or absentee ballot, some said they just prefered or enjoyed voting in person. Some indicated that they hadn’t thought ahead. One voter was adamantly against voting by mail. In two instances voters came to the polls to verify that their mail-in votes were received and correct. But everyone I talked to believed that voting was important, “something every citizen should do,” and that “every election was important,” big or small.
And yes, many said they felt that the death of George Floyd on May 25 and events that followed lent a sense of urgency to their votes.
