by Marty Green ·
Friday, November 8, 2024
Harvard voters turned out in substantial, though not record-breaking, numbers for this 2024 presidential election. Overall, 84% of the town’s 4,800 registered voters cast ballots. That’s down slightly from the 91% turnout rate in 2020, but still impressive compared to this year’s statewide turnout of 67%.
Election Day went smoothly in the Hildreth Elementary School gym. Except for the 18 early-bird voters who were already waiting at the door when the polls opened at 7 a.m., there were almost no lines throughout the day. “What an organized system Harvard has!” remarked one woman who was new to town.
One reason for the lack of lines was that more than half the 4,042 voters had already cast their ballots, either by mail or by voting early at Town Hall. Some 2,288 voters chose to mail their ballots in or to vote early in person. With numerous early, mailed-in, and absentee ballots to count, election workers were busy Tuesday putting those ballots through one of the town’s two voting machines. In fact, because that left only one machine to deposit in-person ballots, voters were more likely to face a line on their way to leave the polls than to enter.
Town Clerk Rose Miranda posted the unofficial election results on the town website not long after the polls closed. Mail-in ballots that were postmarked by election day will still be counted.
Harvard voters favored the Harris-Walz Democratic ticket over the Trump-Vance Republican ticket by 74% to 22%. Another 3% of voters split their votes among other parties or write-ins, and 1% left the presidential choice blank.
In the only other contested race, Harvard voters favored incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, over Republican challenger John Deaton 70% to 28%. (The other 2% were write-ins or blank.)
While counting of same-day voting ballots happens as they are cast, the counting of mail-in, absentee, and early voting ballots is more elaborate, as election warden Dennis Bradley explained Tuesday morning. The signed and sealed envelopes containing mail-in ballots are stored in a locked box as they are received until the morning of the election, when they are opened, recorded, and counted on a machine of their own, as if each voter were physically present.
Mail-in ballots, whether mailed or deposited in the box outside Town Hall, were due Tuesday by 8 p.m.; absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 5 and received by Nov. 8 have until Friday. Miranda reported that no additional mail-in ballots had been received on Election Day, and Bradley told the Press Tuesday night that the number of votes cast by early, absentee, and mail-in voters, as of Nov. 5, was 2,288.
The first voter to enter the polls Tuesday morning was Carolyne Luo, a naturalized citizen born in China whose three children grew up in Harvard. She told the Press her greatest concern was “losing democracy,” because, she said, “I came from a place that doesn’t have it.” How did she plan to spend election night? “I’m actually going to be OK,” Luo said, “because I did my part … I have to work for the whole day, and probably will have to work overtime, so I don’t think I’m going to have much time to think about it,” she added. “But I did my part.”
The last same-day voter was Thomas Monsour of Lancaster County Road, who exited just as the doors to the HES gym closed. “I like to get the information at the end and apply it,” he said.
John Osborn contributed to this article