Turnout is light as voters locate new polling places

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Valadia Madison, a blind Roxbury resident, made her way out of the Orchard Gardens Community Center after voting today. She was helped by poll volunteer Louis Elisa.

By Christina Pazzanese, Globe Correspondent, and John C. Drake and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Roxbury voters in Orchard Gardens appeared to have gotten the message today that their longtime polling place had moved. Only a handful of voters stopped by the former location at an elementary school, and they happily followed an arrow on a large white sign pointing to a community center down the street.

A similar scene played out in the South End, where Principal Mildred Ruiz-Allen spent the early part of her day stationed outside the William Blackstone Elementary School, directing voters down the block to a high school gymnasium. Very few voters had mistakenly come to the former polling place, Ruiz-Allen said, a fact she attributed to signs, flyers, phone calls made to registered voters, and ads published in the South End News.

There was concern that new polling locations in 20 city precincts could generate confusion during today's primary. Boston election officials began notifying voters three weeks ago of new polling locations, which were required to bring the city into compliance with disability access laws. The changes affected 10 precincts in the Second Suffolk District, where Senator Dianne Wilkerson of Roxbury is facing a strong challenge from a former Jamaica Plain schoolteacher, Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Polls opened across the state at 7 a.m. and will close at 8 p.m. Secretary of State William F. Galvin predicted that voter turnout across the state would be relatively low, perhaps less than 20 percent, because the only statewide race is incumbent US Senator John F. Kerry's bid to fend off his relatively little-known challenger, Gloucester lawyer Edward O'Reilly. By noon, roughly 5 percent of registered voters in Boston had cast ballots, according to the city election department.

Election officials are gearing up for a long night of vote counting in Somerville, Medford, Cambridge, and Watertown, communities in House districts featuring vigorous write-in campaigns.

There is also an eight-way write-in primary campaign waged by candidates seeking to replace Middlesex County Register of Probate John R. Buonomo, who resigned earlier this month after his arrest on charges of stealing thousands of dollars from government copy machines.

Because Buonomo's name appears alone on the ballot, Democrats are preparing for the possibility that he could end up as the highest vote-getter. If that happens, each of the county's town and ward committees will caucus in the coming days to elect delegates to a Sept. 24 countywide meeting at which a Democratic nominee for the post will be selected.

Watertown Democrats declined to name a nominee for the House seat vacated by Rachel Kaprielian, who was chosen in May to head the Registry of Motor Vehicles, so voters will see no candidates for the seat on their ballots today. Three candidates - Watertown town councilors Stephen Corbett and Jon Hecht and a labor lawyer, Julia Fahey - are running write-in and sticker campaigns.

State Representative Carl M. Sciortino Jr. is running a write-in and sticker campaign for reelection to the 34th Middlesex District representing Somerville and Medford, after he failed to turn in enough signatures to quality for the ballot.

He is being challenged by Somerville Alderman Bob Trane, whose name will be alone on the ballot. Sciortino's predicament is similar to what Wilkerson faced in 2006, when she ran a sticker campaign against Chang-Diaz after falling short on signatures for the ballot. Wilkerson staved off Chang-Diaz in that race, but the contest today is a more conventional election.

"In the Wilkerson case, her opponent, Chang-Diaz, was not on the ballot either, but here in Sciortino's case, the opponent is in fact printed on the ballot," Galvin said. "That makes it more challenging."

Somerville election workers plan to ignore the machine counts and tally all the ballots by hand, said Thomas P. Champion, a spokesman for the city.

A state election official ran a training session for 115 election workers at Somerville City Hall last week, and they have been told to prepare for a longer-than-usual election night.

• Comment
• Permalink
• Email