MASSPIRG In The News

Musings from the polling stations

Staff writers Charis Anderson, Brian Boyd, Curt Brown, Joe Cohen, Don Cuddy, Steve DeCosta, Becky Evans and Jennifer Lade and correspondents Bill Abramson, Peggy Aulisio and Kim Ledoux contributed to this report.

In Fairhaven, voting was a family affair for the first time for Sharon Challingsworth, her husband Daniel Georgianna, a UMass Dartmouth professor, and sons David and Matthew Georgianna. Ms. Challingsworth, originally from Wales, became a citizen last year, and David, 24, received his citizenship in July. Her husband is already a citizen. And in January, Matthew, also a citizen, turned 18, meaning the entire family could vote for the first time.

"It's just a very exciting time for us," said Ms. Challingsworth, who has lived in the United States for 23 years.

She and Matthew made sure to vote Tuesday morning, but they also accompanied Daniel and David to the polls Tuesday night.

Ms. Challingsworth said the United States' voting system is "a bit confusing" because it is different than that of Great Britain, which holds an election for prime minister alone and has a separate election for referendum questions. "It's just a different system," she said.

 

"Change" was the word of the day at Westport's Town Hall Annex where three town voters said they had voted for "change."

Richard Madden said he voted for Barack Obama "because he's going to change things." He hopes those "things" are "the economy and to see if we can end some of these wars."

For her part, Jane Alpert said Obama is "the most qualified. As Colin Powell said, he's transformational. He's what this country needs."

While Patricia Sikora declined to reveal who she voted for, she said "I don't know if Obama or anybody else can pull it off but we definitely need change in this country."

 

Yet, for all the buzz about change, Ray Drouin, an Acushnet resident, said he isn't convinced that a new president — no matter who he is — will actually improve the country's situation.

"The problems are a lot deeper," he said. "I don't think there'll be all that much change in the end."

Especially while the war in Iraq continues, he said.

"You really can't turn (the economy) all around with the expense of that war," he said. "It's an unbelievable drain."

 

The presidential race was the biggest draw in Tuesday's election, but at least one SouthCoast resident wasn't interested.

Heather Tello, 24, of Wareham didn't cast a vote for president.

"I don't really understand the politics of the whole thing."

So why did she decide to take part in her first election?

"I just came to vote for the questions," she said.

"My mom works for the schools and I work for the state," so she feared for her livelihood if the state income tax was repealed. The question easily survived the referendum challenge.

 

In 2000, Suzanne Smith, a 58-year-old Fairhaven resident, said she would have voted for Sen. John McCain. But now, she said, he is too closely aligned with President George Bush's policies — and "I don't want anything to do with Bush."

That's not to say her presidential vote was easy to cast.

While she ultimately voted for Barack Obama, she said some of his associates, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, concerned her. "I hope I did the right thing," she said.

Despite her concerns, as one who grew up during the Civil Rights era, "I love the fact that we've come to the point where a black person can be a candidate," said Ms. Smith.

Mattapoisett resident Bill Blezard offered a similar sentiment.

"I'm old enough to remember the Civil Rights struggle and this election could change the face of America forever," he said.

 

In Rochester, where all voters cast their ballots at the Senior Center on Dexter Lane, the town created satellite parking so a large turnout would not overwhelm the limited parking space at the center. There was shuttle service between the polling location and the police station down the street, as well as overflow parking directly adjacent to the center's lot.

By 6 p.m., 71 percent of the town's 3,886 registered voters had already cast their ballots, and more people were flowing into the building. People came expecting long lines, but voters got in and out efficiently throughout the day, Town Clerk Naida Parker said.

"It's been a great day," Ms. Parker said. "I'll sleep like a rock when I finally get home."

 

Votes cast in Marion reached an audience far beyond SouthCoast.

Outside the Music Hall where residents were voting, an exit poller asked every seventh person who they voted for in the presidential race.

He explained he was working for Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International of New Jersey and his findings, along with those gathered across the country, were being used by the National Election Pool, comprised of ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and The Associated Press.

 

Acushnet resident Donald F. Valenti Jr., 62, always votes. But he's well aware that not everyone does. That's one of the things he liked best about the 2008 election: the huge turnout.

"It shows that everybody cares, finally," said Mr. Valenti.

 

Talk about taking the plunge. Lakeville Town Clerk Janet Tracy presided at her first presidential election — and what a way to start.

While no stranger to the task — she is a longtime clerk's office employee — Ms. Tracy and her staff had their work cut out for them. "When we arrived at 7 this morning, there was a long line of people waiting outside to vote," Ms. Tracy said. "It was pretty hectic the first hour and a half."

All three precincts in Lakeville vote at the commissary building at the Ted Williams Camp. By mid-afternoon, nearly half of the town's 6,944 registered voters had already cast ballots. And with the after-work rush hour still ahead, that number was only destined to grow.

Meanwhile, a mile or so down the road, some (very) young voters were making their choices. Teacher Maria Martin, who organized the mock election at Assawompset School, said John McCain won by 10 votes — 288 to 278.

The election was Assawompset's fifth annual. "This was the closest election in all the elections we have held at Assawompset," Ms. Martin said.

 

At 9 a.m., two hours after the polls opened, the parking lot of Freetown Elementary School was packed with voters from Precincts 1 and 2.

"It has been very busy. People were waiting in line before it opened, and we had 330 people within the first two hours," said Paul Lubin, Warden for Precinct 2.

Over at the Senior Center, the polls were equally busy. "I have seen a lot of young people coming in this morning. Of course there are the good, old true ones," said Miriam Gurney, Warden for Precinct 3.

 

Outside Dartmouth Town Hall, Sarah Brenner waved to cars while petting her greyhound, named "Junie B." Ms. Brenner, 36, also held a sign urging voters to vote "Yes" on ballot question No. 3 to ban dog racing, something she called "cruel and unnecessary."

She said greyhounds are "beautiful animals that make great pets" and added that many voters leaving Town Hall came over to pet Junie B, adopted from a Rhode Island dog track — telling her they'd voted in favor of the ban.

 

In Wareham, Precincts Two and Three voted at one polling location — the Dudley Brown VFW Post in Onset — for the first time this election. The location, which has only one narrow road for cars to enter and exit onto Onset Avenue, had some traffic problems early Tuesday morning, when voter turnout was high enough to cause a 10-minute wait to vote.

After a few angry drivers started an argument, a Wareham police officer was stationed at the post and stayed all day to direct traffic — and keep the peace.

 

Owner Phil Paleoglogos, a staunch Republican, presided at the Shawmut Diner in New Bedford Tuesday morning as a crowd awaited the arrival of GOP candidate Jeff Beatty, challenging Democratic incumbent John Kerry.

Mr. Beatty arrived just before 9:45 a.m. to a rousing round of applause and chatted up voters having their morning coffee.

"I'm the change candidate," he proclaimed, maintaining Sen. Kerry was shortchanging Bay State residents because of his higher political ambitions.

"People here in Massachusetts don't like to play second fiddle," Mr. Beatty says. "He treats us like the backup prom date."

 

Vanessa Wright was pleased to see a long line of UMass Dartmouth students waiting to vote outside the Cross Road Fire Station.

As an organizer for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, she had overseen the registration of 1,575 students at UMass Dartmouth, including "about 1,000" who registered during a last-minute "blitz" one week before the election.

Across the state, she said, MassPIRG registered 11,900 voters at 17 college campuses.

"This is definitely going to be the year of the young voter," she said.

 

Outside Howland Green Library in New Bedford, 26-year-old Cassie Hall, a brand new U.S. citizen originally from Jamaica, had just voted in her first U.S. election.

She and her husband, Dean Hall, 27, said they both voted for Sen. Obama and for Democratic candidates in the other races. Mr. Hall said Obama won his vote because of "his different views of minorities and because it is time for change."

 

Like many voters, John Martin, 43, of Fairhaven, put the economy at the top of his issues list.

After a lot of research, he said he voted for Sen. McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin.

"I don't see any problem with the way George Bush was doing things," he said.

 

Like many other communities, New Bedford found itself with a bounty of newly registered voters on Election Day. Elections Commissioner Maria Tomasia said about 2,500 people signed up to vote in the city in anticipation of the election. That brought the city's registered voters tally to 55,253 — an impressive number Ms. Tomasia said in a city with a population of 93,700.

 

As the polls closed Tuesday night, Mayor Scott W. Lang was on the move, traveling from location to location to thank the poll workers. The mayor is a staunch Democrat and participated in an Obama rally much earlier in the year where the mayor welcomed Gov. Deval Patrick as the featured speaker. Gov. Patrick was making an Obama campaign swing that included New Bedford when it was still a primary race for the Democratic nomination.

 

Many seniors and handicapped voters in Dartmouth made use of special handicap voting computers, which made casting ballots much easier for them.

The computers include technology that allow people to vote by simply touching the computer screen instead of filling in the space next to a candidate's name.

The computers also have the technology to enable seniors to enlarge a name on the ballot or change the contrast on the screen. Plus, there's a touch keyboard on the screen that allows voters to write-in a candidate's name.

"It's very user-friendly," said Susan Furtado, the warden for Precinct 2, the Smith Mills Congregational Church in Dartmouth. "The seniors are very happy with it. It makes it much easier for them."