Evening Update: All day long, they came to cast ballots
1
NORTHAMPTON - There was no rest for the weary at polling places across Hampshire County on Election Day as a morning rush of voters turned into a lunch rush, which evolved into an after-work surge.
In Northampton, voter turnout was heavy all day, with more than half of registered voters in at least one Northampton precinct casting ballots before the after-work rush even started. The polling station at the Florence Civic and Business Center had accepted 737 ballot sheets by 3 p.m., said Ward 5A deputy warden Brian Joyce, and he was expecting the rest of the night to keep pace.
"It's going to be real busy after suppertime," Joyce said.
Voters were turning out in similar droves in Easthampton before the expected dinner hour rush.
More than 50 percent of the city's registered voters had cast ballots by 4:30 p.m., according to tallies at the high school and White Brook Middle School.
Taft Avenue resident David E. Sullivan, 49, the Obama campaign's Hampshire County Co-Coordinator and incumbent candidate for Hampshire County Register of Probate, said he was phoning in turnout numbers to the John Kerry campaign throughout the day.
"They told me that Easthampton is 30 percent higher right now than it was in the last presidential election," he said.
Meanwhile, Northampton election workers Joyce and Ward 6A warden Mike Shaughnessy both reported a much higher than usual turnout of voters on their "inactive" lists. They said most ended up on the list because they neglected to fill out Census forms mailed out earlier this year.
To get off the list, voters must fill out more paperwork and show identification to prove they still live at the address the had before going inactive. The process takes about five minutes, Joyce said.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is widely expected to carry Massachusetts in the election. But outside the gymnasium of the R.K. Finn Ryan Road School this afternoon, two Ward 6 voters interviewed said they connected the arrow for Republican John McCain.
Bob Nuttelman of Westhampton Road described himself as a disenfranchised Hillary Clinton supporter, saying he voted for the New York Democrat in the primary election. Though Obama bested her in that contest, Nuttelman said he feels the nominee hasn't impressed him.
Of McCain Nuttelman said: "I'm not so sure there's a lot I like, but I do think the man has integrity. I don't see a lot of that coming from the other side."
Phil Vanasse of Florence Road, who also voted for McCain, suggested another four years' preparation might do the Obama good.
"I don't think Obama has the experience yet. I think he was manufactured because the Democrats didn't have many good people to put in."
Easthampton votes
At the Easthampton polls, Sullivan, wearing a black t-shirt with a bejeweled face of Obama on the front, stood at the high school holding a "No On Question 1" sign for much of Tuesday.
"It's reckless," he said of the question.
But Sullivan was "cautiously optimistic" about the question failing.
"We're well organized," he said. "Hopefully by 11 or so I'll be smiling."
Sullivan was not alone in his politicking.
Paul Street resident Patrick Ott, 52, was at White Brook holding a John McCain sign.
"In today's world I want someone with experience and leadership ability," he said. "He can cross party lines and he's proven it."
Ott, who was wearing a Support Our Troops hat and works at the Hoyloke Veterans Home, said that he considers them "first class citizens" and said that McCain's military service is a sign of his character.
Ed Wagner, 62, of Kenneth Road said that he planned to anxiously await election results into the night.
"Now we're just waiting to see," he said.
Meanwhile, in Amherst, Tracie Konopinski, campus organizer for MassPIRG at UMass, said her organization, in cooperation with College Democrats, the Student Government Association and the Cannabis Reform Coalition, signed up more than 3,000 UMass students to register to vote in the presidential election this fall.
In the days leading up to the election, volunteers made numerous phone calls and sent text and Facebook messages to get students to the polls.
Today, Konopinski set up a table at the Bangs Community Center, where most university vote, to safeguard their votes by having a computer and printer ready to use to provide proof of residency should the students forget to bring this with them.
Konopsinki said she is confident the efforts will pay off, and plans to compare student turnout from four years ago with today's turnout.
"We want to make this the year of the youth vote," she said.
Staff writer Scott Merzbach contributed to this report.
