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Voter Turnout In Massachusetts’ Presidential Primary Stronger Than Expected

by: Kari Njiiri

Elections officials say a stronger than expected turnout in this week’s Massachusetts Presidential primary bodes well for November’s general election.

More than 97,000 Springfield residents — about 25 percent of those registered — cast ballots on Tuesday, much to the surprise of election commissioner Gladys Oyola.

“There’s very few times that I’d like to be wrong, but this is one of those cases,” says Oyola, who notes turnout exceeded her initial projection of just 15 percent.

“I can kind of gauge what the interest is going to be by how many people request ballots ahead of time. In this instance, I think, we saw more people actually walking to the polls and vote,” says Oyola.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Bill Galvin says more than 631,000 voters across Massachusetts cast Republican ballots, setting an all-time high. However, the overall number of Bay state voters fell short of the record set in the 2008 presidential primary.

 

 

 

The Short List: Above The Fold In 2015, And Looking Forward to 2016

NEPR'S WEEK IN REVIEW

by: Carrie Healy

What made The Short List this week?

  • Big Headlines for 2015: Voter Turnout, Viaduct Construction
  • Fewer Headlines in 2015: Chinese-owned CRRC USA Rail Corp., Springfield Historical Commission/Historical Preservation
  • What’s Ahead for 2016? Connecticut’s Third Casino and Springfield’s MGM Casino.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy explore these issues with Matt Szafranski of of the Western Mass Politics & Insight blog and The Reminder’s Mike Dobbs.

The Week Ahead On Beacon Hill

by: State House News Service

The media has bombarded Massachusetts residents in recent weeks with the results of public opinion surveys that have helped feed the narrative of which candidates are supposed to win next week and which are supposed to lose.

One constant in the surveys has been a relative high number of people who report they’re undecided among the possibilities laid before them. Yet decide they will, beginning Tuesday at 7 a.m. when the voting starts across Massachusetts and culminates with a slate of candidates set for the Nov. 4 general election. Here are a few questions to be answered:

Less than five years after her stunning U.S. Senate race loss to Republican Scott Brown, will Massachusetts voters select Attorney General Martha Coakley over rivals Steven Grossman and Don Berwick as the candidate best suited to take over the reins of state government from Governor Deval Patrick, who grabbed the governorship in 2006 after it rested under Republican control for 16 years?

How much competition will a largely obscure slate of Republican candidates for statewide office give Democrats this fall as the GOP looks to win its first statewide office since Brown won in 2010? The last Republican to win statewide before Brown was Mitt Romney, who beat Shannon O’Brien in 2002 and took over for former Governor Jane Swift. Expected Republican nominee for governor Charlie Baker will likely top a ticket featuring mostly unknowns.

 

For Susan Kaplan’s conversation with Matt Murphy about the week ahead on Beacon Hill, click the audio player above.

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