by Marty Green ·
Friday, September 6, 2024
Just under a quarter of Harvard’s registered voters cast ballots in this year’s state primary election. And only a third of those who did vote cast their ballots in person last Tuesday at the new location in the Hildreth Elementary School gymnasium. Fully two-thirds of the primary votes were mailed in or cast early at Town Hall.
According to the unofficial results posted on the town website, 1,127 people cast ballots here, which is 23.77% of Harvard’s 4,742 registered voters. (Results become official only after being certified by the state.) Of those voters, 897 took the Democratic ballot, 227 took the Republican, and three chose the Libertarian. In a primary, voters who are registered in a party must take the ballot for that party; those who are unenrolled (not registered with a party) can choose which ballot to take.
Nearly all the races were uncontested, which was probably a major reason for the low turnout. By contrast, in the 2020 state primary, nearly half Harvard’s registered voters (48.64%) cast ballots. That year, Joseph P. Kennedy III was challenging Edward J. Markey to be the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.
On the Democratic ballot this year, the only contest was for the less prominent but important office of governor’s councilor. In a repeat of their 2022 race, the longtime incumbent Marilyn Petitto Devaney was challenged by Mara Dolan. Harvard’s Democratic voters gave a local victory to Dolan, 499 to 326—a wider margin than the one by which Dolan won here in 2022. And unlike 2022, this year voters statewide agreed with Harvard, giving Dolan 52% of the vote, according to New York Times online reports and the Worcester Telegram.
On the Republican ballot, three men were vying to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November. In Harvard, John Deaton won that race handily with 146 votes. Robert Antonellis received 47 votes and Ian Cain 29. Again, voters statewide reached similar results, with Deaton getting 64.9% of the Republican votes. No Republican candidates appeared on the primary ballot for any other state or federal office.
Voting seemed to go smoothly in the new location at HES. The tall sign saying “VOTE!” at the HES driveway drew the attention of some arriving students, who pointed it out excitedly to their parents.
The polls were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. There were a few traffic tie-ups for people who chose to vote at the same time parents were dropping off or picking up their children, at 8:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. But that will not be a problem for the much larger voter turnout expected for the presidential election Nov. 5, as there is no school that day.
Some voters had difficulty locating the entrance to the school gym, which is at the rear of the building, around a corner from the more prominent entrances for the district offices and school classrooms. But Assistant Town Clerk Nicole Levay-O’Brien soon added more signs with arrows to guide the way.
Potentially a bigger problem for anyone with mobility issues is the fairly long walk from the parking lot to the gym entrance. Election officials were considering ways to add a drop-off point closer to the gym entrance for November’s election, perhaps from the bus lane, since no school buses will be arriving that day.