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Super Tuesday: Countdown to NovemberBy Tammy Daniels - February 05, 2008
 | | Clarksburg poll worker Bessie Lapine shows how many Republican ballots are left compared to Democratic. |
NORTH ADAMS - The war in Iraq. Health care. The economy. The environment. The overwhelming desire for change.
Those were some of the issues propelling people to the polls throughout the county Tuesday as party faithful - and likely more than a few unfaithful - checked off the names of their nominees for president.
"It's time for a change," said Marcia, a North Adams resident voting at St. Anthony's Parish Center. "I guess you know that by who I voted for."
Marcia, who asked her last name not be used, isn't an outwardly political person. In fact, she had never voted in a primary before. But this time was different, she said.
"I've just had this feeling for the past year. Something's got to change," she said. "I just hope it all works out."
Marcia wasn't the only newcomer at the polls Tuesday, in what may well be a record-breaking primary election, at least in recent memory.
"There are a lot of first-timers voting. A lot of people didn't know what to do," said election worker Mary Willey.
Willey described the steady stream of voters as the biggest turnout in a long time. "I've never seen anything like it."
Still, Wards 1 and 5 at St. Anthony's had less than a thousand voters total a little after 5 p.m. The city has more than 8,000 registered voters in five wards.
At Clarksburg Town Hall at about noon, the parking lot was packed as voters maneuvered into tight spaces. The town, which normally sees about 100 to 150 voters total in some elections, had already seen more than 100 ballots cast, said elections clerk Lester Doumolin.
Williamstown Town Clerk Mary Kennedy's forecast of 40 percent turnout was way off base - the town had broken the 50 percent mark before 7 p.m. Some 2,217 of the town's 4,344 registered voters had cast ballots, and they kept coming.
Poll workers Gloria Piner and Jean Lafave said they felt their Precinct 3 had been particularly busy.
And what ballots were people taking? Democratic by a longshot. This in a state where former Gov. Mitt Romney was running against Sen. John McCain and Mike Huckabee.
No, the real race in the county as well as Massachusetts is the historic showdown between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Either one winning the Democratic nomination will be groundbreaking.
It was the same at other polling stations. In Clarksburg, Bessie Lapine compared a heavy pile of Republican ballots to a diminishing cache of Democratic. "Oh, they're definitely picking Democratic."
"I've had to change the Democratic pile several times," said Frances Rondeau in North Adams.
In Williamstown, Clark Semon watched as his 1 1/2-year-old daughter, Iris Semon Pike, stood with her grandfather at the voting booth.
Semon said he usually voted in primaries and was concerned over the war in Iraq and the environment. But he didn't have hopes that his choice would be the person to fix those.
"No, because he won't be elected. But he'll still be serving in Congress so he'll do what he can from there." |
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