From Newton City Clerk David Olson:
The grand total for Early Voters in Newton was 17,775 over the course of two weeks. The busiest day over the course of the two weeks was yesterday (Friday) when we had just under 2,000 voters show up at Newton City Hall. Polls closed at 5 p.m. and the line stretched out the building towards Commonwealth Avenue. It took us another half hour to get everyone through the polls.
Polls for the remaining 70 percent will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. I’m not certain about any bake sale hours
I wonder what percentage will vote early next time, when the novelty has worn off? I decided to try early voting this year and will definitely vote at my local poll from now on unless I absolutely have to vote early.
I’d always vote early in the future. It was so easy and convenient that I can’t even imagine waiting for Election Day again.
My sister just had total knee replacement surgery two weeks ago, so we voted early at City Hall on Thursay. It was a piece of cake. We have a an outstanding election setup in Newton. I just wish every state, city and town throughout the nation had something this efficient, open and responsive.
The Elections Department, David Olsen, and the poll workers did an incredible job. I was at City Hall today for Open Studios and the same people were there preparing for Tuesday. Kudos to all of them!
Wonderful news. Making it easier and more convenient for people to vote is so important, and our city clerk has done an excellent job setting this all up and making it run smoothly. Cheers to David.
By the way, in case you missed it, the ACLU is suing Massachusetts to force us to allow same day registration. Really interesting argument they’re making. It makes a ton of sense to allow people more convenience to register to vote or change party. See here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/11/02/aclu-sues-over-mass-voter-registration-deadline/DLcQIRox2gjMzDHEfaOIFJ/story.html
Early voting was a breeze; I’m sure I will do so next year. On the Tuesday of the vote for Obama or Romney, I was just home from having surgery, although I did get there. Now no worries. I really appreciate everyone who worked to make this possible, employees and volunteers. What would we do without David Olson?
It still surprises me that MA waited so long to offer early voting and am glad we finally made the right decision. It’s terribly unfair to those who have a difficult or an impossible time getting to the polls on just one weekday. I know several people this has allowed to vote.
Just a footnote to my previous post. On the day we voted last week, Joanne and I pulled into the small parking lot next to the City Hall elevator. The only open spot was reserved for “Aldemen” and I was about to let Joanne out and go across to park in the library lot. David Olson was out there talking to someone and when he saw Joanne get out with her crutches, he motioned me into the empty Aldermen slot. I was about to feel a bit guilty, but then I thought, “why don’t area councilors have reserved parking at City Hall and elsewhere throughout Newton? Maybe our friends on the Charter Commission could write that into their final version next week, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I feel a bit sensitive about this because the only parking ticket I have ever received in Newton was in the Highlands when I was actually doing something in connection with the Highlands Area Council.
I probably would have early voted if I hadn’t still been thinking about ballot question 4. But I don’t have to be at work until 5pm on Tuesday (covering local state rep races) so I’m not too worried about lines.
My poll worker friend tells me the early vote envelopes get distributed to the precincts and the poll workers will feed them through the ballot box during the course of the day. So that would probably throw off the normal pattern of our reported time/ballot count status on Election Day, tending to smooth out the increase over the course of the day, if the early votes are processed during the slow times of day.
@Bob Burke – ““why don’t area councilors have reserved parking at City Hall and elsewhere throughout Newton?”
I’m holding out for reserved spots for Village 14 bloggers
That would be a two fer for me.
My sister has lived in New Hampshire for many years, and when she first told me they had Election Day voter registration, I thought she must be mistaken. But she was right, and that was back in the days before computers made that kind of record keeping a breeze. Americans are mobile people, and it seems awfully unfair that anyone should lose the opportunity to vote because of an unluckily timed move, even within the same community. So I say bring on New Hapshire-style same-day registration. Maybe New Hampshire will return the compliment by adopting Massachusetts-style early voting. It seems to have been a great success here. It will be interesting to see if it increased overall turnout or simply gave people who’d have gone to the polls anyway a chance to vote more conveniently–not that there’s anything wrong with that.
@Amanda Heller, without delving into same day voter registration, for people who have a badly timed move they are able to vote in the precinct of their old address if the election is within 6 months of the move. Of course this is more convenient to folks moving across town then those moving across country.
I look forward to seeing if early voting increased the percentage of voters casting ballots. I hope there will be a noticeable increase in voting from 4 years ago.
I also took advantage of early voting, anticipating longer lines and a busy schedule on election day.