The wait is over for the many politically energized Bay State residents who have been waiting for the day they could cast their ballots in the midterm elections.
Early voting began in Massachusetts Monday and will be open to all registered voters until Nov. 2. This is the second election cycle for which the state has implemented early voting, the first being in the 2016 presidential election.
Early voting provides voters with more time and locations to vote and is available to all Massachusetts voters in at least one location in their city or town. Residents do not need to provide an excuse for voting early.
Voters can also cast their early ballots by mail after submitting an early ballot application to their local election official.
Marie Ryan, president of the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association, which manages all of the clerk’s offices in the state, said the popularity of early voting could be dependent on the type of election that takes place that year.
“During the presidential [election], it was the first time we all did [early voting], and we knew that the presidential would be very busy, so almost everybody did an extra day or night or an extra place out in our community,” Ryan said. “I did as well at that time, but this time, it’s not a presidential, so I don’t think as many people are doing extra things.”
The main reason early voting was implemented, Ryan said, was to increase voter turnout, which, according to her, has not happened yet.
“[Massachusetts] just wants the easiest access as they can to get more people to vote,” Ryan said. “Tons of people did early vote, but less people came to the polls. It really did not do a major increase in voter turnout like they originally thought it was going to. But people liked it, and it’s convenient for a lot of people.”
Brian Conley, a professor of political science at Suffolk University, said different elections and issues incentivize voters, especially younger voters, to go to the polls, including early voting.
“Therefore, you might see two things: people on their own being motivated to [vote early] or political parties or campaigns that would be motivated to target certain voters and take advantage of the fact that they can vote on more than one day,” Conley said.
Commissioner of the Boston Elections Department Dion Irish wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that over 17 percent of all votes from Boston in the 2016 presidential election were cast early, totalling to more than 47,000 early votes.
“The City of Boston received many positives feedback from voters, so for this early voting period we built on what we did last time around,” Irish wrote. “Today during our first hour of early voting 2018 we saw an encouraging 146 votes.”
Suzanne Heywood, 72, of Back Bay, said she voted early at the Boston City Hall location Monday because that was the easiest time and place for her.
“Early voting is beneficial because of convenience, and you know, I’ve made my decisions on how I feel about everything, so to wait until the sixth of November, it seemed like [early voting] is a good thing,” Heywood said. “The [early voting at City Hall] was very efficient.”
Sean Daughtry, 47, of Roxbury, said he also voted early at City Hall because he might be out of town on Election Day.
“I’m early voting because of traveling,” Daughtry said. “Early voting guarantees you can vote.”
Larger towns and cities like Boston have multiple locations for early voting. Currently, Boston has nine polling locations available to residents for this, located in each of the nine congressional districts of the city, Irish explained.
Executive Director of MassVOTE Cheryl Clyburn Crawford said the large number of locations available for early voters is extremely beneficial to potential voters.
“We have the nine different districts, and we’re able to have voting locations through early voting in each one of the districts every day for these two weeks,” Crawford said. “It makes it possible for you to be able to vote on the way to your job or even on your daily trek.”
Debra O’Malley, a spokesperson for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, said that at a minimum, early voting has to be open during the local election officials’ regular business hours, but there are incentives for locations who offer additional hours.
“They have the option to expand [the hours], so a lot of them have taken the opportunity to have later hours during the week or to have Saturday hours or Sunday hours,” O’Malley said. “The law doesn’t require them to be open on the weekends, but we offer grants to the local election officials to encourage them to be open at least three to four hours on one of the weekend days.
Some residents agreed that these extra hours available work better for their schedule. Sarah McCrary, 42, said she voted early Monday because of the convenience and timing of the early voting system.
“I’m going to have a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be around on Election Day, and early voting guarantees availability,” the South Boston resident said. “So many different people have different constraints in their life, so the option of having more time to get out and vote is better for general turnout.”
