by Joan Eliyesil ·
Friday, August 30, 2024
After years of casting their ballots at the Bromfield School, Harvard voters will have a new venue for voting on Sept. 3: the Hildreth Elementary School gym. It will be a school day, which introduces a few complications, but town and school administrators assured the Press there will be ample signage to direct voters to parking and to the gym entrance. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The purpose of a primary is to choose a political party’s nominees for the general election, held in November. There are three recognized political parties in Massachusetts: Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian. Each party’s candidates are printed on a separate ballot, with space for write-ins for each open office.
Every registered voter is eligible to vote. When registering, voters may choose to enroll in one of the three recognized parties or in one of the state’s 29 “political designations,” or they can register as “unenrolled.” If a voter enrolls as either Democratic, Republican, or Libertarian, they can vote only for their party’s candidates. Voters registered as “unenrolled,” or those enrolled in a political designation, can choose any party’s ballot. Political designations include the Green Party, the Conservative Party, and the Socialist Party. Changes to party enrollment can be made up to 10 days before the primary.
In Harvard, this year’s ballot includes candidates for seven offices: one U.S. senator, the U.S. representative of the Third District, the state senator of the Middlesex and Worcester District, the state representative of the 37th Middlesex District, the Governor’s Council member for the Third District, the Worcester County Register of Deeds, and the Worcester County clerk of courts.
Marilyn Petitto Devaney. (Courtesy photo)
Mara Dolan. (Courtesy photo)
All seven offices are currently held by Democrats, and all seven incumbents are running for reelection. The only contested race on the Democratic ballot is for a spot on the Governor’s Council where incumbent Marilyn Petitto Devaney is being challenged by Mara Dolan.
On the Republican ballot, three candidates are vying for U.S. senator: Robert Antonellis, Ian Cain, and John Deaton. No candidates are named for the other six offices. The Libertarian ballot has no named candidates.
And lest anyone be confused by the color of the Republican and Democratic ballots at the polling place, Massachusetts has been using blue ballots for the Republican Party and red ballots for the Democratic Party for many years. This year is no exception.
Parking will be available in any of the school lots, and HES Principal Rebecca Katsh-Singer told the Press that school staff will be asked to park elsewhere that day to provide more spaces for voters. But both she and School Superintendent Linda Dwight cautioned that voters should avoid the hours between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. as well as between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Parents drop off and pick up children between those hours, and long lines typically block the entrance to the parking lot closest to the school.
Dwight said voters may also park on the school side of the bus lane outside of pickup and drop-off hours. The entrance to the bus lane is on the north side of the school off Mass. Ave. There are no curb cuts adjacent to the bus lane, however, so anyone needing an accessible path should not park there. The walkway from the main entrance to the gym entrance is accessible.
November’s general election will also be held in the HES gym, but Dwight said it will be a professional development day, which means teachers will be in the school, but there will be no students.
This will be the first election for the town’s two new voting machines. Town Clerk Rose Miranda said they were tested Aug. 19, and as far as voters are concerned, they operate the same way as the old machines. But they are faster and they will separate ballots that contain write-in votes, making tallying easier.
Miranda told the Press she sent out 1,300 vote-by-mail primary ballots, and 457 had been returned as of Aug. 22. She said voters have until 8 p.m. Sept. 3 to return the mail-in ballots. They cannot be handed in at the polls, but Town Hall will be open until 8 p.m. that day to accept mail-in ballots, and any ballots placed in the drop box outside Town Hall before 8 p.m. will be counted.
Unofficial results of the primary election will be posted on the town website after the polls close. The Press will also post the results on its website and in its Sept. 6 edition.