Steady Stream Of Voters Pick Incumbents And Policy Changes

MASHPEE- Mashpee voters turned out in force Tuesday, voting for change at the national level and familiarity closer to home.
The polls opened at 6 AM to a line of about 100 voters led by Craig Rose, officially the first person to vote on Cape Cod. Mr. Rose arrived at the Quashnet School believing polls actually opened at 5 AM, the opposite of what many residents thought thanks to erroneous signs planted around town stating the polls opened at 7 AM.
Deborah A. Dami, Mashpee’s town clerk, said the signs were ordered before the decision was made to bump up the opening time to 6, which she did to try to catch people who wanted to vote before heading to work.
“I’m there anyway…if it means I’m here to deal with voters in the early morning rather than late at night, why not?” she said, adding, “I assure you, everyone knew when we opened.”
Mashpee High School students sold snacks and drinks to raise money for class activities, and members of the Quashnet School’s K-Kids community service organization assisted voters. Jane Emery, the club’s staff advisor, said she and one of the special needs members greeted voters, and a rotating staff of 20 fifth and sixth graders helped voters find their precincts.
Ms. Emery said the participating students all had to be club members in good standing, which meant they had to keep up their grades and attendance. “They did a great job,” Ms. Dami said.
Additionally, the club held a food drive on Election Day to benefit the Mashpee Chamber of Commerce Food Pantry, and succeeded in collecting about 1,000 items.
Ms. Dami and a team of 60 adult volunteers, working two shifts, kept the lines moving all day, aided by a new layout for the polling floor. A total of 50 voting booths were laid out in five rows of 10, one row per precinct, and voters entered at one end and exited at the other to keep foot traffic from backing up. She said she is strongly considering keeping this same layout for future elections.
Another change: voters left the polls through a separate exit, again to keep the lines moving in a single direction and prevent traffic jams.
During the evening rush, Mashpee police officers directed traffic in and out of the packed Quashnet School parking lot, often only so cars could turn around to park alongside Old Barnstable Road after failing to find a space on the property.
Ms. Dami said the day was “pretty steady” in terms of volume. She had originally predicted a record 90 percent voter turnout rate, and of the town’s 9,993 registered voters, 8,314 participated in Tuesday’s election for an 81 percent voter turnout rate.
Precinct 1, which includes the area around the Massachusetts Military Reservation, saw the highest voter turnout (1,804), and Precinct 3, the northeastern part of town, saw the lightest (1,290).
About 1,000 ballots counted Tuesday were absentee ballots, Ms. Dami said. Seven provisional ballots were filed, and only two of those were not later proven to be registered voters.
There were a number of instances when a resident’s name did not appear on the voter rolls because he or she had failed to return the town census, Ms. Dami said; registered voters who do not return the annual census are considered inactive and are assumed to have moved.
However, even voters who had indeed left town got a chance to vote in Mashpee thanks to an 11th-hour law approved last week by Governor Deval L. Patrick. The law allowed voters who moved to a new town but failed to reregister within 18 months of Election Day 2008 to vote in their previous town of residence, assuming they were registered to vote there.
These transient voters were allowed to weigh in only on the Presidential and US Senate races, and the referendum questions. Ms. Dami said she handed out only four of these limited ballots, two of which were for the Fifth Barnstable District, which included a fourth non-binding question.
Despite the many challenges, Ms. Dami said the day went “very well” and credited that success to her team of volunteers, election wardens, and the staff at the clerk’s office, as well as the Mashpee Police Department and the Mashpee Department of Public Works, which assisted with setting up for the day.
“I love Election Day,” Ms. Dami said.
Mashpee followed the state and the nation in supporting US Senator Barack H. Obama for president over US Senator John S. McCain III. President-elect Obama received 4,274 votes to Senator McCain’s 3,559. Precincts 1 through 4 favored President-elect Obama, while Senator McCain prevailed in Precinct 5, which encompasses New Seabury.
The four third-party candidates also on the presidential ballot received little Mashpee voter support, taking in collectively 121 votes.
In the US Senate race between incumbent John F. Kerry and Republican challenger Jeffrey K. Beatty, Mashpee voters helped return Senator Kerry to office by a fair margin. Senator Kerry received 4,234 votes, Mr. Beatty 3,421, and again, all but Precinct 5 leaned toward the Democratic choice.
Libertarian candidate Robert J. Underwood received 159 votes.
Mashpee voters backed Democrat Mary L. (Pat) Flynn of Falmouth and Republican Ricardo M. Barros of Centerville in the race for Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners. Ms. Flynn swept all five precincts and collected 3,452 votes, Mr. Barros received 3,044.
Ms. Flynn won one of the two available seats on the board, along with Democrat Sheila R. Lyons of Wellfleet, who narrowly placed third in Mashpee over Republican William B. (Brad) Crowell of Dennis. Ms. Lyons received 1,998 votes, Mr. Crowell 1,946.
Republican Anastasia Welsh Perrino of Yarmouthport won a fairly tight race in Mashpee against Democrat Eric T. Turkington of Falmouth to win the Barnstable County Register of Probate race. Ms. Perrino collected 3,777 votes, Mr. Turkington 3,228, and unenrolled candidate James A. Feeney of Harwich received 391.
Mashpee had two legislative races to decide, and voters handily returned their two incumbent state representatives to office.
In the race for state representative of the Third Barnstable District, which includes Precincts 2, 4, and 5, Matthew C. Patrick (D - Falmouth) was the decisive winner over Carey M. Murphy, a Falmouth selectman who was running for the state rep seat as an unenrolled candidate.
Mr. Murphy, who co-owns Kensington’s in Mashpee Commons, received 1,804 votes in Mashpee’s three Third Barnstable District precincts, to Mr. Patrick’s 2,767.
Jeffrey D. Perry (R - Sandwich) won re-election by a wide margin over Democratic challenger Glenn S. Paré of Sandwich in the race for state representative of the Fifth Barnstable District. That district includes Precincts 1 and 3 in Mashpee.
Both precincts fell in line for Mr. Perry, casting a total of 1,864 votes to Mr. Paré’s 1,025.
There were also four uncontested candidates on the Mashpee ballot, all of them incumbents: Congressman William D. Delahunt, Governor’s Councilor Carole A. Fiola, State Senator Robert A. O’Leary (D - Barnstable), and Marcia R. King, the town’s representative on the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates.
Mashpee followed state and regional trends on the three binding referendum questions on the ballot.
Question 1, which sought to repeal the state income tax, was defeated in a 4,544 to 3,156 vote in Mashpee.
The Committee For Small Government backed the proposal, claiming taxpayers would benefit from a leaner, more efficient state government while holding onto more of their own money. Opponents said the loss of $12 billion in revenue (about 40 percent of the state’s FY09 budget) would result in a catastrophic loss of state aid for communities, and an ensuing leap in property taxes.
Mashpee voters supported Question 2, which would decriminalize possession of one ounce or less of marijuana and replace criminal penalties with a civil fine. The measure was backed in Massachusetts by the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy.
Voters in all five precincts supported the measure, with 5,059 supporting Question 2 and 2,800 opposing it.
Question 3, a measure to ban greyhound racing in Massachusetts, was passed in a 4,774 to 3.061 vote.
Supporters said greyhounds were often kept in inhumane conditions and suffered numerous injuries on the racetrack, while opponents cited the loss of jobs and revenue that would result from shutting down the state’s two racing parks. Parks in Raynham and Revere are those towns’ largest employers.
The precincts in the Fifth Barnstable District also had a fourth question, which was non-binding, asking voters if they wanted their representative to support drawing $450 million out of state reserve accounts and spending that money on local aid.
Voters in Precincts 1 and 3 overwhelmingly supported the proposal: 1,808 voted for it, 840 against.
Mr. Perry, who was not involved with the ballot question, is among Republican lawmakers who say municipalities are back-owed that money from a three-year period when Lottery Aid payments were capped to help deal with a budget crisis. The “public policy” question was filed via voter petition and appeared on ballots in four other state representative districts across the state.