The first round of voting before Super Tuesday is complete, and it appears voters are largely waiting until Tuesday to decide which presidential candidate they want to appear on the November ballot.
Early voting for the presidential primary was held throughout the state this week. For a few communities in the region, the numbers of early voters were consistent, but none of their turnout percentages were in the double digits as of Friday.
In Athol, Assistant Town Clerk Carol Bachelder said the town had an 8 percent turnout — 521 voters of the town’s 7,018 — as of Thursday evening.
“We had a little over 100 people a day on average,” Bachelder said. “It hasn’t been crazy busy. It’s been steady.”
This was unlike 2016, when one-third of the town’s voters voted early, she said.
With a lower turnout, Royalston had 26 people cast their vote early, or 2.7 percent, according to Town Clerk Barbara Richardson.
“We have 932 active voters in town,” Richardson said. “This week hasn’t been too bad. There haven’t been any glitches.”
Greenfield City Clerk Kathy Scott said as of Thursday evening, there were 451 voters “over the counter,” or 3.7 percent of the city’s 12,185 registered voters.
“We’ve had consistent numbers throughout the week,” Scott said Friday morning. “We had 102 voters on the lowest day and 120 on the highest. I expect that today will be much of the same, not super heavy.”
She said early voting was an overall success in the city.
“I’m told primaries are less attended than the general election, but I still think we’ll have a good turnout like this past week,” Scott said. “I think it will be consistent throughout the day. We want a good turnout.”
Conway Town Clerk Laurie Lucier said turnout was about 4.7 percent, with 72 votes out of the 1,521 registered at the end of early voting.
“It wasn’t too busy,” Lucier said. “Tuesday will be my first primary.”
If you did not participate in early voting, polling places are required to be open from at least 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, statewide.
Reach Melina Bourdeau at mbourdeau@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263.

