Harvard voters turned out in near-record numbers on Super Tuesday, March 1, handing a narrow victory to Hillary Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the town’s Democratic presidential primary and a strong endorsement to Donald Trump in the five-candidate Republican race.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Clinton won 50.9 percent of the 1,611 votes cast by those who took the pink Democratic ballot, but Sanders was only two points behind with 48.7 percent. It was a pattern repeated among Harvard’s neighbors, including Boxborough, Stow, Acton, and Concord. But elsewhere in Central Massachusetts, Sanders carried the day, with victories in Bolton, Littleton, Ayer, Shirley, and every town west of Harvard in Worcester County. The county’s largest municipalities—Worcester, Auburn, and Shrewsbury—went for Clinton, however.
In the Republican primary, Harvard voters chose Donald Trump over John Kasich, 33.0 percent to 27.4 percent, with Marco Rubio trailing at 22.9 percent. Statewide, Trump’s margin was huge. At 7 a.m. Wednesday, with most of the ballots counted, Trump could claim 49 percent of votes cast in the Massachusetts Republican primary. Kasich could claim a second-place finish, but at 18 percent of the statewide vote, he was far behind Trump. Rubio managed a close third-place finish (17.9 percent), but the remaining candidates, Ted Cruz (9.6 percent) and Ben Carson (2.6 percent), were far behind. Among Harvard’s neighbors, only Acton broke the pattern, favoring Kasich over Trump, 32.5 percent to 28.2, while Ayer, Littleton, Shirley, Bolton, Lancaster, and Stow all went for Trump
Of 3,934 voters reported as registered by the town clerk on Tuesday night, 2,447 or 62 percent took part in the primaries, a percentage one point less than the 63 percent turnout for the historic 2008 presidential primary. Two-thirds (1,611) of Harvard voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary, while 830 took part in the Republican primary.
Like the rest of the state, a majority of Harvard’s voters are independendent, or “unenrolled” in the state’s parlance. Of the towns 3,934 active voters, Town Clerk Janet Vellante said in an email Wednesday, the vast majority (2,396) were registered as unenrolled (61 percent), with 1,028 (26 percent) registered as Democrats and 487 (12 percent) registered as Republicans. The votes cast suggest that hundreds of Harvard’s unenrolled voters took a Democratic or Republican ballot and voted in a party primary.
Eleven-day-old Sienna Stephens seems nonplussed by Super Tuesday as parents Tory and Allyson Stephens cast their ballots. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Abigail Kilcommins looks pleased after voting. She commented later that she was “very excited” to cast her first presidential primary ballot.
From left: Michael Ames gets help checking out from daughters Abigail and Clara Ames.
From left: John Seeley, Julie Seeley, and Paul Brown get names and addresses verified at checkout.
