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Election Day open thread (polls close at 8 p.m.)
by village14 | Nov 6, 2018 | Elections, recreational marijuana | 37 comments
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My ballots were 209 and 210 at 3/2 (Peirce) at 7:50 am. I waited a minute or two to get my ballots, which was a positive sign for participation. And yes, there was a bake sale.
With the two ballots, it’s hard to say how many individual voters there were. Hopefully everyone took two ballots.
I can understand why there were separate ballots, due to printing. But I would prefer they just hand you both rather than ask if you want both. In case there’s miscommunication, I’d rather err on the side of someone getting a ballot rather than not getting one.
#166 at Ward 6/Precinct 2. Got in at the middle of morning rush — about 20-25 people in 2 lines.
I come in through the back entrance so missed all the sign holders. Some people in line openly grumbled with each other about (I’m paraphrasing) having ‘to vote on the marijuana question again’. Just one couple in the 18-30 age bracket was there.
Ballots 284 and 285 at 1/3 (Bigelow) at about 8:10- I guess that makes me voter #143-150, or thereabouts, as the 2 ballots are counted separately.
Long line when I got there, to the door. Great to see. Lines was much shorter as I left, but still…
A moderate number of sign holders, including the counter-intuitive (IMO) “no on ban/yes on limits,” probably more than in most elections. I don’t run the sign gauntlet from the direction I approach the entrance.
I didn’t note people by age, but there were definitely at least some younger voters there. But for me “younger” means “looks like they might be younger than 45.”
There was a bake sale.
552 had voted at Lincoln Eliot by 9:15.
Bring money to buy goodies at bake sale.
#1 in my W/P. Voting was rather high on my list of things to do today. I’m really not kidding about that. Anyone who knows me, knows I never toke around.
Ballots 691 and 692 at 5/1 at about 10:15. No line, but a pretty steady stream of voters.
I had ballots 386 and 387 at 7/2 (Bigelow). Lines were fairly short at 8:45 am, though parking was not easy. The two ballots complicated things a bit (and slowed things down) because the poll workers were required to check off two pages in their voter roll books representing the receipt of two ballots, and check out was the same. Only two or three folks holding signs. I imagine they’ll be many more sign holders after 5 pm.
I feel very uncomfortable about the fact that people are being given the state ballot, but are being asked if they want to also vote on the city questions. It seems to be happening at all polling locations. I wonder why it is happening.
At 11:00, 5-4 was huge for a non-national election: 1005.
I was just handed the municipal ballot. Nobody asked. Didn’t bother me either way, but why not just hand it out? (there’s probably a reason, I’m guessing)
908 and 909 in 8/3 at 11:15 a.m. It was more crowded than I can ever remember in a non-presidential election year.
Number 1064 at 12:30 at Ward 1/1.
Was handed both ballots, no questions asked.
But….the voter list showed me as “inactive” because they claim I did not turn in my City Census.
That’s funny….I personally hand delivered it to the Hall last Spring.
So it somehow got lost in their shuffle and I had to jump through a few hoops at the polls to get this fixed. And can I add, this is the second time I’ve had items I’ve hand delivered “lost” in the shuffle. The other time was my excise tax….they lost my check so I had to pay for a stop payment AND pay the late fee. Gotta love the competence level of these folks.
I went at 8AM and was asked if I wanted both ballots and I told them I was glad they were asking as some people may not know. As I was leaving I over heard that in the 1st hour only one person didn’t take the city ballot so maybe they have decide to just hand both to everyone
1277 & 1278th ballots at 3/3 at 12:25pm. So at least 639 voters
Steady stream of people, lot of cubbies occupied, but no real line. I only had to wait half a minute because there was someone ahead of me in M-Z.
The bake sale table was empty. :-(
As I was leaving the building, I heard someone say, ‘we’ve done our duty. Proud to be an American. ‘
Thought about this that I heard on the radio this morning: last FB post of the Utah mayor killed in Afghanistan was about voting. https://nypost.com/2018/11/05/utah-mayor-killed-in-afghanistans-last-message-vote/
Oh, and 3/3 was also asking people upfront, ‘do you want both ballots?’
And on a somewhat related topic….
If we are going to continue using schools as voting locations, there should be no school on voting day.
When I went to Lincoln-Elliot, it was dismissal time and there were kids everywhere….along with a significant amount of
elderly voters trying to navigate the masses (JFK Elderly Housing is in this Ward).
I saw a woman nearly get knocked over by a rambunctious kid…doing what kids do.
And then there was the traffic jam on Jackson Rd combined with a guy in a large pickup truck thinking that it was wise to fly up the street while everyone was trying to get to/from the school.
All of these issues created a very dangerous situation and could at least be somewhat avoided if there was no school today.
JMO.
I also don’t like Election Day at the schools. Election Day should be a holiday so people don’t have work OR school. People were parked illegally at my child’s school which is dangerous. The sign-holders are in the way during drop-off and pickup. Then like the above comment, it’s hard for the elderly to navigate through the kids. There was an elderly woman in a walker at 12:30 – pickup time – and having a hard time getting around.
And I don’t love the fact that people can just waltz into the school. The cop there doesn’t really help.
Buried amidst all the last-minute fundraising demands I find an email from Elizabeth Warren’s campaign saying turnout statewide as of 1 pm is very low. Can this be on the level? Sure, the weather’s lousy, and there aren’t a lot of nail-biter contests, at least in this part of the state. But still.
I saw that email- found that a curious statement based on wide reports of lines and early voting. Wonder what the source was.
Yeah, I surprised, too. I voted around 2:15 so not exactly peak time and it was crowded.
I went, Ward 6, around 11:50 and there were only a few people – I figure it was the lull before the lunch crowd. I, too, was surprised that I was asked if I wanted the local ballot rather than being automatically handed it. I liked that they pointed out that the state ballot was printed on front and back. As always, thanked the poll workers for doing that job.
Sent in my absentee ballot last week – any thoughts on when we can expect the results/conclusions to start coming out for Newton or MA?
@Jim:
Results should start coming in pretty quickly after 8 p.m. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have the full results by 9 p.m. We’ll post a link on Village 14 to the results.
@TheWholeTruth – another argument for raised speed tables and other modern traffic calming measures in the denser neighborhoods of Newton. I don’t buy the excuse that it’s a hazard to public safety. Our cops and firefighters drive big, manly SUV’s, they should be able to get over the speed bumps just fine, the way their counterparts in places like Somerville, Cambridge and Boston do.
Voter 1623 @ Emerson (5-1). More people then I would’ve expected actively voting at 4:30
The totals may or may not include the early voting ballots or absentee ballots for a precinct. The poll workers have been so busy that it’s been hard to find time to get the EV ballots in the machines.
Chris, Voter #1623 or is that the ballot count (with most voters submitting 2 ballots?)
2014 turnout in 5-1 was 900 out of 1650 registered (http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/84814)
Ward 1 Precinct 3 at Bigelow Middle School at 5:45. Ballot # 2053 and 2054. No line, but steady flow. Four cookies and cold coffee remaining at PTO table.
Lincoln Elliot (1/1) hit 2000 at 6:20 PM – around 1000 voters
The parking lot was full at 3/4. I was number 2244. We had to wait a few minutes to file because the ballot box was literally stuffed. By that I mean so many folks voted they had to take a few moments to empty it. A good sign.
Ward 2:1 had 2382 as of 6:27. Pretty busy and their was a line to put ballots in.
Looks like more people voting in Newton than on November 2016. YAY!!!
I was #2605 at 3/3 a few minutes before 7pm.
@Doug – good question. I believe its ballot count, not voter count. So over 800 voters
I voted for you in 2016 Amy. Hope you throw your name in the hat again. ❤️
And yeah the machine at 2:1 counts by ballot, so again roughly 2 per person. I did see that pretty much everybody on my voter page had voted which is far more than the primary.
So, why do they ask if you want the municipal ballot? Why not just give it to them?
I was at my biz accountant’s office today in New Hampshire and there were three elementary school aged kids playing in the office. My accountant explained that their school is used for the election, so no school.
Yes, in this instance Concord New Hampshire is more progressive than Newton Massachusetts.