Rain, first day of school, moving day …who’s actually voting in the primary?
For a State House candidate, primary day began the way it does for many in Cambridge and Somerville: Dunkin’ at dawn.
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As Olivia Gilligan-Corsetti was picking up her iced coffee at the location on Highland Ave, she spotted a familiar face: her opponent Ben Ewen-Campen, who was also getting his fix.
“Of course we’d both be here,” she said, smiling.
By 7 a.m., she was in front of her mother’s house, next to the Somerville Armory. Passing out signs with her name on it to volunteers, she made sure her mother and friends knew where to go.
“Honestly, I’m close to tears,” she said after her team dispersed. “I wish I could share with my dad that I’m running for office.”
Gilligan-Corsetti’s father died in 2018 of cancer, a loss that she says fueled her political work. A first-time candidate, Gilligan-Corsetti is handling much of today’s logistics herself and had a time-staggered map of where she’d be in Somerville over the course of the day.
“We knocked on over seven thousand doors and I’m going to need new shoes after this,” she said. “I’m just really excited to find out what happens.”
Inside the Armory, poll workers were hustling to prepare rooms for voters.
Kevin Smith, warden for precinct 1 in ward 5, arrived at 6 a.m. to make sure the site was running smoothly by the time the first voter came through the door. It was his job to make sure the machine ingesting ballots was set up, that all the poll workers were in place, that the ballots were ready, that the signage was up.
“We have a very good crew here,” he said, noting that he has been a poll worker for 10 years and that he had worked with everyone on his team in prior years.
Because he works long hours for primaries and elections, Smith voted early at City Hall.
“I come from a voting family,” he said. “I remember coming as a kid with my parents because they voted here.”
Outside the Armory, supporters of candidates for State House and State Senate were gathering with signs. They outnumbered voters, who were barely trickling into the Armory’s polling center.
Storms ahead
Over in Cambridge, House Representative candidate Evan MacKay said they were feeling “excited” outside their polling place at Graham and Parks School.
Despite the rolling rain clouds, the clash with the start of the school year, and the busiest moving day of the year, they said “it’s a perfect day.”
The last few months have been leading up to the culmination of a rematch of a close 2024 race between MacKay and the incumbent representative, Marjorie Decker. Decker won re-election by 41 votes, after MacKay petitioned for a recount.
“A big goal of this election is to bring more intention to the status quo of the state legislature,” they said.
Decker, also at Graham and Parks School, said that this time around, she’s been excited to talk about her work.
“We ignored [MacKay’s accusations] two years ago, because we wanted people to just focus on the record.”
Transparency was a big topic in MacKay’s challenge of Decker. But, MacKay said they also talked about whatever mattered to voters – anything from light pollution to time zones.
Public servants on public corners
It almost seemed that if sitting politicians weren’t running for higher office, they were out on the streets supporting one who was.
As rain began falling in Cambridge, one of its city councillors Ayah Al-Zubi posted up on the intersection of Inman and Harvard with an umbrella in one hand and a sign for House Rep. Mike Connolly in another.
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Noting that there is sometimes a divide between Cantabrigians who grew up in Cambridge and those who move here, Al-Zubi noted that Connolly never made her feel like an outsider.
A dark car pulled over and a window rolled down. “Is that Ayah?” Cambridge city councillor Tim Flaherty’s voice was identifiable from the driver’s seat before he turned to face her. “Why aren’t you holding a sign for Tim Flaherty?”
In Teele Square, Somerville city councilor Kristen Strezo held a pink umbrella while speaking up for House Rep. Christine Barber, who is running for State Senate; and her fellow councilor Will Mbah, who is running to replace Barber.
“I’ve been canvassing and supporting Barber because I support strong female candidates who have a proven record of getting things done,” said Strezo.
Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson was also on the scene. “I’m out here because democracy is important,” Wilson said. He said he’ll be voting tonight.
Rainy day turnout
Primary elections bring out politicians. But do they bring out voters?
At the Somerville Armory, Rob Desimone said it was his duty to vote, and that it was a privilege. He votes in every primary and was one of the first voters on site. He voted for Matt McLaughlin for state senate, the only candidate who he said came to his door. Fliers, he said, were a waste of money and time. “If someone knocks on your door and talks to you, you can relate to them,” he said.
DeSimone did not seem to be in the majority.
Poll workers at Valente Library in Cambridge described morning turnout in one word: “awful.”
There had been just over 40 votes cast at that site by noon.
Beth Burke, the warden at Ward 2-1, has been working elections for decades, since she was 18 years old. She said turnout has been especially low this year, which she attributed to the weather and the nature of a primary with uncontested categories.
At Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Shavonne Noble and Caidence Reed, a mother and daughter team working at the polling station, described the turnout as “consistent, but a little slow.”
Noble has volunteered as an election warden “since I was 18, so for 25 years now.” She got into it because her mother had been an election warden, too. When asked if her daughter was going to take up the family mantle, Noble laughed. “I would hope so!”
Timing is everything
It’s not just the rain that dampened voter turnout. It was also the first day of school in Cambridge, as well as the busiest moving day of the year.
Even if the weather and schedules cleared, would turnout be higher?
Primaries tend to appeal mostly to political junkies, said Erin O’Brien, professor of political science at UMass Boston. Primary voters are “unrepresentative of the general population,” she said. “I think you have to be a higher information voter, and you tend to be more partisan and politically engaged.”
And while many local elections at the state level are contested this year, most of the higher-profile seats went uncontested. Even the at-times heated Senate primary between incumbent Ed Markey and challenger Seth Moulton appears to have lacked what political strategists prize above all: cut-through. “It’s a pretty apathetic contest, but for the true believers,” O’Brien said. (Markey, the 80-year-old incumbent, has a comfortable lead in the polls.)
Plus, September 1 is when many residential leases turnover as streets become a frenzy of backup beeping, three-point turns and discarded couches, which could depress turnout further. “It’s such a weird date to have a primary,” O’Brien said.
Chris Oates, candidate for state representative for parts of Somerville and Medford, agreed, calling the date “frustrating.” He said having the heart of the campaign fall in the last two weeks of August meant a lot of people felt “checked out.”
The finish line
Despite all the factors affecting turnout, many candidates said they were “feeling good.”
“I’m glad people are still showing up in the rain,” said Christine Barber, wearing a plum-colored raincoat after voting in Teele Square. Gov. Maura Healey had been scheduled to appear with her at the polling place but demurred due to light turnout.
“I’m feeling good because we’ve done all the work,” said Will Mbah at the same polling place, sporting a Patriots ballcap. “I just hope it shows in a winning margin.”
Julia Carpi, Brianna Earle, Bruno Muñoz-Oropeza, Noah Hirsch-Rechter, John Chronopoulos, and Ruth Tam contributed to this report.
