Election Day in the Berkshires 2020
Clarksburg still uses its historic ballot box.
For all the concerns about disruptions — they were boarding up downtown Boston! — voting appears to have gone smoothly and efficiently even with pandemic precautions.
The primary election had provided a good template for town and city clerks to follow and the surge in early and mail-in voting may well have taken the edge off long lines in what is expected to be a record-breaking turnout.
There were no local races on the ballot since the entire Berkshire delegation was running unopposed. U.S. Sen. Edward Markey was running for a full second term against Republican challenger Kevin O'Connor and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal was returning to office unopposed. Both Democrats had fended off primary contenders in September.
The big ticket items were for president, with Democrat Joseph Biden attempting to unseat incumbent Republican Donald Trump, and two ballot questions, one on the "right to repair" dealing with independent mechanics access to automobile data, and the other on ranked choice voting.
The result for office was not surprising. Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris took Massachusetts with 67 percent of the vote. Markey returned to office with 67.7 percent. Both of these numbers were from the Associated Press with 60 percent of votes counted. Question 1 has also apparently passed with 75 percent of voters saying yes; Question 2 was failing with more than half of voters saying no.
The smaller towns in North County had a pretty steady turnout, including Stamford, Vt., across the border. In Clarksburg, the lines were at the door at 7 a.m., reported Jeanne Moulthrop. Poll workers had predicted some turnout numbers with the highest being 1,000 — the total number of registered voters is about 1,200. That's up 56 voters since the primary.
"I had to turn two people away because they hadn't registered in time," said Moulthrop.
Moulthrop thought they could hit the 1,000 — or 83 percent — turnout since more than 400 had already voted in person or by mail. The number of ballots cast was 523 shortly before noon and Moulthrop was still working her way through the mail-ins. "I get started and then I have to stop to help a real live person," she joked.
The town's interim town clerk, Paul McLatchy III, was doing double duty covering his town of Rowe and Clarksburg. Moulthrop said he had been going back and forth between the towns and would be back in Clarksburg in the evening.
The numbers were steady in Cheshire as well, said Town Clerk Christine Emerson, who was busy unpacking mail-in ballots for processing. Voters were moving fairly swiftly through Community Center and 990 ballots had been cast at about 2:30. The town has 2,507 registered voters so already at about 40 percent.
"We're not even halfway through the mail-in votes," Emerson said. The poll workers had been busy from the start, she said, with a line at the door when they opened at 7 a.m. She joked there might to time talk on Wednesday, if they weren't all in a nursing home.
North Adams was at about 83 percent turnout by late afternoon: 3,743 had been cast at St. Anthony's Parish Center and about 3,600 people had already voted early or by mailed ballot.
"It has been steady all day. I think it is going to be one of the higher turnouts," poll worker Ron O'Brien said. "There has always been someone voting."
Town Clerk Christine Emerson unpackages mail-in ballots for processing.
In Adams, a lone Trump supporter stood with a sign as voters made their way to the polls at the Town Garage on Summer Street. Town Clerk Haley Meczywor said voting had been heavy in the morning — "there was a line out the door" — but had slowed significantly in the afternoon.
"Then it kind of like dwindled down," she said. "I mean, it's been steady, but I'm hoping it'll pick up."
The town has about 6,200 registered voters and had about 2,400-2,500 mail-in or early voting ballots. The setup is the same as was done for the primary election, with social distancing lines up to the precincts and plenty of hand sanitizer on hand.
Pittsfield precinct polls were busy through the day and the poll workers who had time to talk said everything has gone smoothly and turnout has been good. A visit around the city in the afternoon only turned up one group with signs — all for Biden.
The city had turnout of 72 percent, with 21,720 votes cast out of possible 30,056. Biden and Markey polled the most votes in their races.
Lenox had an 85 percent turnout with 3,321 ballots cast out of a total of 3,923 registered voters. Biden was the overwhelming favorite, taking 2,657 votes to Trump's 586 with 46 votes going to third parties. Markey was also a big winner with 2,578 votes to O'Connor's 636. Lenox voters also went big for Question 1 (2310 to 796) but rejected Question 2 by a slim 34 votes, 1,532 to 1566.
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