HYANNIS – Early voting will be held this week for the Massachusetts presidential primary.
Towns across the Commonwealth will offer the early voting period today through Friday, February 28.
Voters on Cape Cod will be able to visit their Town Hall during normal hours to vote in a party primary.
Registered voters will be checked in and receive a ballot. When ballots are completed, voters will enclose them into a sealed, signed envelope to be counted on Election Day.
“Early voting is really a convenience,” said Ann Quirk, the Barnstable town clerk. “And it allows people to come in and vote and not stand in the lines they are expecting in the polling locations.”
Quirk said sometimes they do end up waiting in line during early voting.
“We work as quickly as we can but that is what happens,” she said.
In Barnstable, there are currently 33,711 registered voters.
Quirk said that number usually remains pretty constant, but usually increases before the general election in November.
“We also have absentee ballots and we have done a lot of those as well,” Quirk said.
On Election Day, absentee ballots are taken to the precincts and are run through the tabulator at the precinct.
Early voting ballots are kept in a vault at the town clerk’s office. They are run through a tabulator on 8:30 a.m. on Super Tuesday, March 3. The early voting ballots are run through by precinct.
“At the end of the day, we collate the early voting and the regular voting numbers so we can have the results as quickly as possible,” Quirk said.
Quirk said Barnstable opted not to offer extended hours for any of the early voting days.
“The Secretary of State’s office told us to do it during our regular workday hours,” she said. “I think it is because it costs a lot to the towns otherwise.”
Quirk said early voting turnout has typically not been high in Barnstable and has been around 25 percent.
“I’m hoping this year for a bigger number,” she said. “We just want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to vote, however they choose, but just come out to vote.”
For early voting locations and hours for every town in Massachusetts, visit sec.state.ma.us.
Along with the presidential primary races, the ballots will also feature candidates for the Plymouth and Barnstable State Senate.
A special election is being held to fill the spot vacated by Vinny deMacedo in November. He left the seat to accept a position at Bridgewater State University.
Jay McMahon and Jesse Brown and republican candidates for the seat. Rebecca Coletta, John Mahoney Jr., Thomas Moakley, Susan Moran and Stephen Michael Palmer are squaring off in the democratic primary.
The ballots will also include races for both parties Cape & Islands state committeeman and committeewoman.
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