Voters cast their ballots for the presidential primaries in Somerville’s City Council Chambers on February 28.

By Rachel Sharples

Somerville residents of all ages flowed in and out of City Hall last week to vote early in the presidential primaries. Although early voting was available in the 2016 presidential election, this year was the first that people could vote ahead of time for a primary election.

Nicholas Salerno, the chairman of the Board of Election Commissioners for Somerville, spoke to the logistics of the early voting process.
“Early voting, the very first time we did it, was very successful,” Salerno said. He mentioned the turnout in 2016 was about 32 percent of all voters in Somerville.

Although stating that early voting doesn’t make a huge difference in voter turnout, Salerno maintained the stream of voters throughout last week was consistent, and it’s primarily an aid for the community.

“We’re satisfied with the turnout. Naturally we’d hope there would be many more people, but it’s been pretty steady,” Salerno said. “It’s strictly a tool of convenience.”

On Friday morning, multiple voters interviewed reaffirmed that coming out to vote early was mostly about convenience, especially in avoiding the lines for Super Tuesday.

“The big thing to me is reducing lines on Election Day, so it’s a less burdensome process for folks,” Michael Mastrobuoni, a SomerStat employee at City Hall said. “And it’s really convenient because I’m right here.”

Ben Migdol, a Somerville resident, also emphasized avoiding long waits as an incentive to vote early, as well as fitting into schedules better.

“I thought I’d try to beat the crowd, and I wanted to make sure that I actually got it done,” Migdol said. “I think it adds a convenience to people’s lives where, since there’s not voting on the weekends, people can carve out some time during the workday to get there. They should be able to have options.”

Leslie Quinn echoed this point, stating, “My work hours are difficult, so this was a better time to come than Tuesday.”

Betzaida Burgos, a Somerville resident, also affirmed the convenience of early voting in scheduling, as “it’s very helpful because from here I can go and do anything I need to do outside, like grocery shopping or something.”

Ramón Bueno, who came to the early voting because he had to drop off his wife’s absentee ballot anyway, expressed that early voting is helpful but can sometimes be problematic in terms of timing in the election season.

“I always vote on Election Day, but when it’s a few days before and I have a chance to do it, in case I get sick or something like that or something comes up, I know that I won’t have to feel the pressure. But I don’t like voting if it was many weeks earlier, I wouldn’t want it, because I like to be up on the issues on Election Day,” Bueno said. “But this is close enough.”

Another voter, Don Meglio, repeated this worry of flexibility with current events in early voting, but stressed the importance of accommodating voters’ needs.

“I think that if it encourages people to get to the polls and vote, I think that’s the way to go,” Meglio said.
*