Unofficial results have Massachusetts breaking voter turnout records
Massachusetts set a new record for voter turnout Tuesday as more than 3 million residents went to the polls and overwhelmingly chose Democrat Barack Obama as the country's next president.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin said in a telephone interview yesterday that the tally of voter turnout has reached 3,042,959, up from the 2.9 million who participated in the 2004 presidential election.
He said the total could rise to 3.1 million when overseas ballots are tabulated in the coming days.
"It's impressive," Galvin said, noting the state's total population of 6 million.
Galvin attributed the increase to Obama's candidacy and statewide concerns about the stuttering economy.
Drawn by the Obama candidacy, he said, voters turned out in dramatically larger numbers in minority districts in Boston and around the state, as did voters in neighborhoods with large concentrations of college students.
Galvin's office took control of the Boston's Election Department after major problems surfaced in the last election. He said he has not yet spoken in detail with officials from his office who were directly involved in Boston, but said that no major problems were reported.
Dorothy Joyce, spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said the city was "extremely proud and happy" with the way the Election Department managed the election, during which about 62 percent of registered voters went to the polls, she said.
The Obama-inspired wave of voting in a heavily Democratic state helped drown out the candidacy of Jeff Beatty, the Republican who challenged incumbent Senator John F. Kerry, except in Boxford.
According to a Globe analysis of unofficial returns from 349 of the state's 351 cities and towns, Boxford was the only community where Beatty won, by 221 votes.
Alan J. Benson, Boxford town administrator, said that the northern suburb has consistently supported conservative and Republican causes and that voters' support of Beatty and GOP presidential candidate John McCain was in keeping with that tradition.
But, he added, he hopes that Kerry will continue his historic support of town requests during his next term in office.
"His office has always been good to us," Benson said.
The tiny town of Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard was the biggest stronghold for Obama, with 90 percent of the 311 voters there casting ballots for the Democrat.
"It was not unexpected for me, as the clerk, that it would be that way," said Carolyn Feltz, the town clerk.
With only 15 Republicans among the town's 398 registered voters, McCain got 26 votes, she said, indicating that he wooed some Democrats and unenrolled voters.
Other communities that came out overwhelmingly for Obama included Cambridge (88 percent), Provincetown (88 percent), Amherst (87 percent), Shutesbury (85 percent), and Pelham (85 percent).
McCain won 48 communities, according to unofficial returns.
Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report. John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. 