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The presidential matchup is old hat, the outcome of the primary vote seems a foregone conclusion — but at least there’s a shiny new ballot-counting machine on the scene in New Bedford.
The DS 450 — a desk-size gray contraption that looks like it could be used to sort mail — gets its first workout in tallying thousands of mail-in ballots in the city’s part of the Super Tuesday presidential primary.
Folks in the Elections Office were looking forward to seeing how it would go, but otherwise, in the days before Massachusetts, 14 other states and one territory hold presidential contests, the event seemed to be generating little buzz in New Bedford. The Elections Office crew said they’re not getting so many calls about polling places, address checks, and other matters that would usually suggest voter engagement.
Voting Super Tuesday
Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5. A list of polling locations is available on the New Bedford Election Commission website. To find your specific ward and precinct numbers, along with other voter information, visit the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth website.
“So far there’s not a lot of interest,” said Jonathan Darling, spokesman for the City of New Bedford.
Mostly likely that’s due to utter lack of suspense in the main business, the presidential primary.
President Joseph R. Biden is seeking the Democratic nomination against two other candidates who are gaining no traction. In the last primary in South Carolina on Feb. 24, for instance, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips combined won nearly 4% of the vote to Biden’s 96%.
On the Republican side, former President Donald J. Trump is on the ballot against six other candidates, all but one of whom, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, has dropped out. In the South Carolina primary, Trump topped Haley 60% to 40%, and is expected to cruise to the nomination.
City ballots also include named candidates for party state committee and write-in options for ward committee. The committees represent their respective political parties at various levels of government and promote partisan goals.
Mail-in balloting in New Bedford so far is not catching on as well as it has across the state as a whole. According to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, cities and towns sent mail-in ballots to 15% of the state’s 4.95 million voters. New Bedford’s Elections Office sent out 4,970 ballots, or 7% of the city’s 67,930 registered voters, according to the state. The city Elections Office said the mail-in ballot total is slightly lower, 4,879.
As of Feb. 29, the state said 2,854 New Bedford ballots had been mailed back, and 172 cast in early voting at three sites in New Bedford during the five days before March 1 for a turnout of 4.5%. The statewide turnout figure was 8.7%
As one might expect, voter turnouts in presidential primaries in New Bedford hinge on whether there’s a competitive race among Democrats, who outnumber Republicans in the city five to one. Both combined are outnumbered by independents. In Massachusetts, independent or unaffiliated voters can participate in any party primary, but a voter registered in one party cannot vote in another party primary.
As of Feb. 27, the city’s partisan breakdown was: 42,574 independents, 20,414 Democrats, 3,966 Republicans, 272 Libertarians.
In 2008, with Barack Obama in a contest against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, the New Bedford turnout was 35%, Elections Office records show. In 2012, when President Obama ran without competition, the turnout was 8.6%
In 2016, with Clinton in a race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the city turnout was 30%. The turnout in 2020, with Biden running against Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the city turnout was 21%.
Vote counting from 36 precincts and five sub-precincts in six wards will go on as usual for this election, except for the mail-in ballots. In years past, those were handled by elections workers feeding ballots into a machine one at a time. Darling, the city spokesman, said the process would usually take 12 workers about 12 hours.
He said the $60,000 machine — paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act money — will count mail-in ballots and also separate ballots that are not acceptable for one reason or another so election workers can examine them.
On Saturday morning, staff members gathered in the office of Manny DeBrito, who heads the Board of Election Commissioners, to see how the new gadget would do. With lots of stopping and starting to load ballots by precinct for 41 precincts, Darling said the machine counted 3,182 ballots in two hours, 40 minutes, passing its first test.
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
Voting percentages in primaries are low but they are also low in elections; too low. Committed minorities are enabled as is happening now in this country. The majority supports aid to Ukraine, legalized abortion, the bipartisan agreement on border control, and the importance of judges recusing themselves when a conflict of interest occurs, etc. but a minority is controlling the agenda. Our democracy is collapsed.