The Westford Template is traveling around town with updates from the polls all day. Here’s our notes from the field.
10:36 a.m. – At the Miller School, there have been 417 voters, and more are coming. Precinct Warden Marilyn Frank predicts a high turnout at this rate, as there were 15 people waiting to vote at 7 a.m. as the doors opened.
Outside, Kris Lokere is holding a sign for the Baker/Polito ticket and Dennis Galvin. He’s next to Perry Gould, who is holding signs for Jim Arciero.
While Lokere and Gould disagree on who they’ll vote for in the State Rep race, they have similar views on a need breaking the “one-party rule” in Massachusetts politics.
12:15 p.m. – There have been 582 ballots cast at the Stony Brook School. There’s a steady turnout there as well.
Outside, Jim Cunningham is helping out Dennis Galvin and Jim Healy is helping out Jim Arciero.
Both Healy and Cunningham have respect for both candidates in the state rep race, Healy’s an old friend of Arciero and Cunningham believes there should be a change on Beacon Hill.
The weather is beautiful. On to the next stop!
2:28 p.m. – As of 1:14 p.m., there were 780 ballots cast at Precinct 1 and 711 at Precinct 3, the two Abbot School precincts.
Cori Ryan was outside holding a sign for Brian Herr, the largely unknown challenger to U.S. Senator Ed Markey from Hopkinton.
“He’s interested in changing the status quo up in Washington,” said Ryan.
Ryan accepted the fact that it’s unlikely that Herr will win, although she noted the race for governor is a lot tighter.
According to the town clerk’s office, 533 absentee ballots have come in, including 23 today. About a third of what was seen in 2012, but a lot for a midterm election.
The expectation is that turnout will be just under 50 percent.
“We knew by the amount of absentee voters that it would be a well attended election,” said Assistant Town Clerk Patti Dubey.
Absentee ballots from overseas will be counted over the next ten days as long as they were sent out today.
4:15 p.m. – There were 841 ballots cast at the Blanchard School as of 3:07 p.m. and 897 ballots cast as of 3:24 p.m.
Just a reminder, the ballots are two-sided.
Although Jim Arciero’s name is properly pronounced “Ar-sero,” we’ve heard folks today say “Ar-See-Air-Oh” (full disclosure: I’ve accidentally used that pronunciation at times) and one person said “Ar-Sair-Ee-Oh.”
Another anecdote, one woman thought that Nancy Kerrigan was on the ballot. She requested not to be named for obvious reasons. What she was looking at was Steve Kerrigan, the running mate for Martha Coakley.
8:41 p.m. – The vote tallies are coming in, we’ll have the unofficial results in a few minutes.
8:43 p.m. – Here’s the results for the state rep race, we’re hearing that Galvin has done well in the Chelmsford precincts, but that’s unconfirmed.
Precinct 1 – State Rep
Jim Arciero – 845
Dennis Galvin – 714
Arleen Martino – 24
Total (including write-ins and blanks) – 1,651
Precinct 3 – State Rep
Jim Arciero – 876
Dennis Galvin – 641
Arleen Martino – 19
Total (including write-ins and blanks) – 1,595
9:13 p.m. – State Rep results, these are technically unofficial. Total turnout from all precincts for all races and questions was 57.35% of voters.
Precinct 2
Jim Arciero – 875
Dennis Galvin – 625
Arleen Martino – 19
Totals (including write-ins and blanks) – 1,554
Precinct 4
Jim Arciero – 783
Dennis Galvin – 651
Arleen Martino – 28
Totals (including write-ins and blanks) – 1,526
Precinct 5
Jim Arciero – 834
Dennis Galvin – 593
Arleen Martino – 27
Totals (including write-ins and blanks) – 1,508
Precinct 6
Jim Arciero – 725
Dennis Galvin – 579
Arleen Martino – 11
Totals (including write-ins and blanks) 1,360
Total from Westford precincts
Jim Arciero – 4,938
Dennis Galvin – 3,803
Arleen Martino – 128
Totals (including write-ins and blanks) – 9,194
9:51 p.m. – Galvin has conceded.
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