|
|
|
About 4,000 voters turned out to cast their ballots for this morning, getting a good start on fulfilling Town Clerk Dottie Powers’ prediction of a high turnout this Election Day.
This year there are 10,160 registered voters in Westwood, and Powers said she expects most of them will probably show up to vote at the town’s polling stations today.
During the 2004 election, she said, there were 9,669 registered voters, and 8,367 showed up to vote – about 99 percent.
“The lines were already in place at 7 a.m. when the polls opened,” said Powers.
The polling places this year are: Precinct 1 at the Senior Center, 210 Nahatan St., Precinct 2 at Sheehan School, 549 Pond St., Precinct 3 at Hanlon School, 790 Gay St., and Precinct 4 at the Downey School, 25 Downey St.
Powers said she has 7 poll workers at each location - one more than usual - to help deal with the anticipated larger turnout.
“It’s a pretty high turnout for this time of day,” Powers said at about noon.
Teresa Riordan, assistant town clerk, said there had been a few calls to check voters’ registrations, but that all was going smoothly.
Powers said a new law passed on Friday, which allows people to vote in the town they were last registered in if they have moved within the last 18 months.
If a voter has moved in the last 18 months, but not registered at their new town, they are given a partial ballot, Powers said, which allows them to vote for president, vice president, referendum questions, senate and congress.
She said her staff didn’t have a lot of time to adjust to the new law, since it took effect three days before the election. However, a group of Town Clerks from Western Massachusetts were prepared with a flow sheet on how to handle the new law, and the state also sent out a spread sheet. To ensure her staff would have as much time to prepare as possible, she said, Powers distributed the materials to her wardens over the weekend.
“If we didn’t have that, it would have been a little bit more difficult to grasp it,” Powers said.
