The Bay State is one of about two-dozen states that will hold primaries or caucuses Feb. 5.
(Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff/FILE)
With Super Tuesday looming large in the closely contested presidential race, potential voters are flooding into City Halls across Massachusetts to register for the key Feb. 5 contest.
The Bay State is one of about two-dozen states that will hold primaries or caucuses that day, and Massachusetts officials believe the state could play a pivotal role. That has sparked the rush to get on the voter rolls before tomorrow's registration deadline.
Many cities and towns in the state have received loads of mail-in voter registrations. And many town and city offices have seen lines of people waiting to register.
"If the race is still percolating, if there are no intervening events in Nevada or South Carolina and Michigan, we may be part of a de facto national election," Secretary of State William F. Galvin said yesterday in a telephone interview. "There is a lot of energy surrounding these primaries. . . . The people are aware of the moment that we are in, electing a new president, and of the complexity of the races on both sides."
Already, 19,876 absentee ballots have been processed through Galvin's office.
"That's an impressive number," Galvin said. "It suggests an extremely high level of interest. With what's at stake, we may see the same high turnout for the primaries." He said his office has also fielded thousands of phone calls from people seeking information about registering to vote.
Doug Currie, who has worked for Boston's Elections Department for 12 years, said he was surprised by the dozens of people who showed up yesterday to register, despite the weather.
"It's been crazy; they've been coming in all day," he said, adding that the department has been flooded with mail-in registrations.
Donna Fabiano, town clerk of Braintree, said: "We are getting a lot of young kids coming in, they seem to be more engaged. And we've had a lot of party changes."
In Framingham, Valerie Mulvey, town clerk, said it took her two hours just to open all the voter registration mail. "We've had a pretty constant flow of people for days now, much more substantial than in past presidential elections," she said.
Cambridge received about 300 voter registration applications in the mail yesterday, and about 60 people braved the weather to travel to City Hall to register, said Marsha Weinerman, executive director of the Cambridge Election Commission. "It's been high volume," Weinerman said. "Through the holidays, it was slow, maybe four people a day, but since the new year it's increased, and then it really picked up last week.
"It just seems to me, as a person who has closely followed politics for a very long time, that there's a lot more interest in this election and people are more engaged now than they've been in a very long time," Weinerman said.
Galvin said people interested in registering should call or visit their town or city hall. Those offices will probably remain open until 8 p.m. tomorrow night to take late registrants. Registration can also be done at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Galvin said mail-in registrations must be postmarked by tomorrow, and he cautioned against dropping registrations in mailboxes that day because some may not be emptied until Thursday. Registration forms can be downloaded from the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website at www.sec.state.ma.us or picked up at libraries or post offices.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires first-time voters and those registering by mail to show identification when they vote, Galvin said. Voters may send a copy of their identification with voter registration forms. If they do not provide identification, the act stipulates that they may cast a provisional ballot that can be counted later after their eligibility has been confirmed.
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