Early voting draws a steady stream of voters

FALL RIVER — On the first weekend for early voting before the Nov. 3 national election, there was a line out the door to the Atrium at One Government Center for voters to cast ballots and the applications for mail-in ballots continue to flood the Fall River Board of Elections office.

“We’re already at 25 percent just with early voting and mail-in with almost 14,000 votes cast so far,” said Board of Elections Chairwoman Kelly Souza-Young.

About 500 people showed up to vote early between Saturday and Sunday.

The in-person early voting option runs through Oct. 30 in the Commonwealth.

As of Friday, Souza-Young said her office mailed out 11,948 ballots and between last Thursday and Friday alone, they received about 3,000 to 4,000 returned ballots.

“We’ve been really busy,” said Souza-Young.

The last day to apply for a mail-in ballot is 5 p.m. on Oct. 28.

The Board of Elections is setting up what Souza-Young called a central tabulation center in One Government Center where the mail-in ballots will be processed.

“Starting on Oct. 26 we will have three voting machines set up in the basement and it will be open to the public. It’s basically what we have to do at the polls except it’s on a larger scale because of the volume of mail-in ballots,” said Souza-Young.

As the mail-in ballots are processed through the voting machines, election staff will take those ballots and seal them in a bag and voting results will be put on thumb drives that will also be sealed until Nov. 3.

Asked if she had any predictions on the number of registered city voters that would come out this election season, Souza-Young noted that in the last Presidential election, 62 percent showed up at the polls.

“I think we could see 70 percent this time,” said Souza-Young.

On the third day of early voting in Swansea, a steady stream of voters waited in line to cast their ballots at the Venus de Milo’s Athena I room.

A row of large orange cones separated the early voters entering and exiting the event center.

Former clerk Betty Costa, who was overseeing the early voting at the Venus de Milo, said voters were showing up in “spurts.”

About 172 voters had shown up at the early polls by around 1 p.m. on Monday, with another 172 on Sunday and 170 on Saturday.

Voters wishing to in-person vote on Nov. 3 will do so at the Venus de Milo.

“Steady but not overwhelming,” is how Somerset Town Clerk Dolores Berge described early voter turnout on Monday at the Council on Aging building. “There are no lines and everything is moving quickly.”

On Saturday, 238 voters cast early ballots. Sunday morning was busy, said Berge with 135 people voting. That number dropped off fast just before the New England Patriots football game started, she said.

Berge said she’s sent out 5,200 mail-in ballots and they’re being returned fast and furiously.

She shows a photograph sent by Somerset Assistant Town Clerk Kathleen Maiato of boxes of returned mail-in ballots her office received that morning.

“We’re emptying the drop box about eight times a day and processing them so people can track their ballots,” said Berge.

On Nov. 3, voters will go to the Somerset Berkley Regional High School to cast their ballots.

For voter information or to track a ballot visit https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleidx.htm

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com