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Last Tuesday started early for Christopher Thrasher. His 8-month-old daughter was awake at 4:30 a.m., so everyone was up at home in Westport on an election day that would be not quite like any other for Thrasher, who as a campaign consultant has seen his share. 

This was something else. Only weeks before he had decided to jump into the race for the open state representative seat in the 8th Bristol District as a write-in candidate for the Republican nomination. 

“These were the hardest votes I’ve ever worked for,” said Thrasher, a lawyer specializing in ballot access and elections law who has been consulting for political campaigns since 2008. 

Key 2024 election dates

The state’s primary election is just two weeks away — on Sept. 3, the Tuesday after Labor Day. The general election follows nine weeks later on Nov. 5.

Sept. 3 primary election

Key dates in the primary election for New Bedford voters:

Aug. 24: Last day to register for primary election voting.
Aug: 26: Last day to apply for voting by mail in the primary election.
Aug. 24-30: Early voting for the primary election, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the New Bedford Main Public Library, 613 Pleasant St.
Sept. 3: Primary election. Polling hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Nov. 5 general election

The general election is Nov. 5, with a new set of deadlines.

Oct. 26: Last day to register for voting in the Nov. 5 election.
Oct. 28: Last day to apply for voting by mail in the Nov. 5 election.
Oct. 19 to Nov. 1: Early voting from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Main Public Library, 613 Pleasant St.
Nov. 5: General election. Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

More voter info

Where do you vote? To find your specific polling location, enter your street address and postal zip code in this online form. Check the list of New Bedford’s polling locations here.

Get additional info on voter registration, eligibility, requirements, etc., at the Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth website.

Find a list of Massachusetts candidates in the Democratic and Republican primary races.

Learn more about voting in New Bedford and find applications for absentee ballots and applications for voting by mail at the New Bedford Election Commission website.

Find additional information about voting in Massachusetts at Vote 411, from the League of Women Voters Education Fund.

The contest for the 8th Bristol seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Paul Schmid of Westport seemed all set. There was Democrat Steven J. Ouellette, a member of the Westport Select Board, and three Independents: Manuel Soares Jr., also a Westport Select Board member, Laura Hadley of Westport, and Jesse W. St. Gelais of Acushnet.

But, no Republican running in a district that includes all of Westport and parts of New Bedford, Fall River, Freetown and Acushnet.

Thrasher, an unenrolled voter who was elected to the Westport School Committee in the spring, and had served on the town Finance Committee for about a year, had not entered the race as a Republican for a few reasons. A friend and fellow School Committee member, Evan Gendreau, was considering it, and there was also an unresolved complication because of his unenrolled status.

As the race unfolded, though, Thrasher thought something was missing. 

Where, he wondered, was the strong voice for policy suited to the district, grounded in day-to-day challenges of budgets and other practicalities?  Where was greater skepticism about the claims of the wind power industry, and state regulations that raise local costs?

Some three weeks before the primary election on Sept. 3, he decided he was in. 

He started making calls, rounding up volunteers, drawing for help on the Westport Republican Committee. He set up a Facebook page, ordered campaign flyers, ordered stickers bearing his name and address that the voter could choose to apply to the ballot, rather than actually writing his name.

There’s been no fundraising yet, but he said he’s already in for about $20,000.

He would need 150 signatures from voters at the polls. Despite a fine weather forecast, he knew turnout was likely to be light.  He knew it wouldn’t be easy. 

“When you’re asking them to physically write in, it’s a completely different ask,” he said. “It’s a heavy lift.”

He planned on some 10 volunteers covering polling places across the district. He’d cover four of five locations in Westport himself. They had 13 hours.

First, breakfast at Lexi Lu’s Place in Westport at 6:45 am —Portuguese sandwich and coffee. 

“Always coffee,” Thrasher said. 

Then, with his wife Arianna and baby Emmaline, he started at Westport Town Hall Annex soon after 7 am. He worked a circuit of four polling places through the day, delivering his pitch. 

He figures he talked with about 100 voters, juggling a campaign sign and his cell phone to check in with his volunteers. 

Minus a lunch break at the Kozy Nook (half a BLT sandwich), he was on the task until polls closed and beyond. Soon after 10 pm he and a few close associates were back at the annex, waiting for word. 

The last ballots came in from the polling place at Our Lady of Grace, putting him over the top at 171 signatures. 

As of last Thursday, as Thrasher was rushing up to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office in Boston to formally accept the nomination before the 5 p.m. deadline, he knew he had 200 signatures. That was Westport and Freetown, with totals still to come from New Bedford, Fall River and Acushnet. 

The general election race would run with five contenders, including a Republican, after all. 

Reached by email, the Democrat Ouellette offered quick thoughts on the difference the change would make in the contest.

“Major party backing and funding,” he said, adding that he was being endorsed by Schmid, first elected in 2010, and his fellow Select Board members, Shana Teas and Craig J. Dutra.

In the early going, Thrasher has the strong support of Westport School Committee Chair Evan Gendreau, who is running his campaign. 

“I could not have done this without an awful lot of help,” Thrasher said. “I was happy with the result, and now on to November. Now the real work begins.”

Thrasher is one of several candidates in this cycle to take the write-in road to the nomination, which requires 300 signatures for a Senate seat, 150 for the House, according to State House New Service. These efforts added three contested races for House seats for a total of 42, and two races on the Senate side for a total of 12, the news service reported. 

That means there’s competition for just a bit more than a quarter of the 200 legislative seats that are in play this election, according to the news service account. 

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Sept. 10, 2024, to add information about other legislative candidates who earned a spot on the November ballot via write-in campaigns.

Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.