The line of Haverhill voters waiting Thursday evening to cast an early ballot in the presidential election stretched from the basement of City Hall to the second floor. By the time the temporary polling place in City Hall’s basement closes Friday at 4 p.m., more than 15 percent of the city’s 46,516 registered voters will have cast ballots.
City Clerk Linda L. Koutoulas, overseeing her first Haverhill election, declined to predict turnout for Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 8, but said judging from surrounding communities’ expectations, as much as 80 percent of the city’s electorate could come out to cast ballots.
Koutoulas told WHAV Friday that 7,017 voters, or 15.1 percent, had cast ballots by 11 a.m., with five hours to go before the end of early voting. Voters have been able to cast ballots weekdays since Monday, Oct. 24 in City Hall basement and at three additional neighborhood locations on Saturday, Oct. 29. Many voters took advantage of Thursday’s extended hours, when the City Hall polling remained open until 8 p.m.
Early voting has been successful, and voters appreciate the opportunity to cast ballots in advance of Election Day, Koutoulas said.
“There have been lines, but they move very quickly,” she said.
On Election Day, Tuesday, voting in the city’s 21 precincts takes place from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
This year, because of construction at the new Hunking School, two polling places will relocate. Voters in Ward 2, Precinct 2, who normally vote in the school’s art room, and Ward 7, Precinct, 2, who usually cast ballots in the school library, will vote Northpoint Bible College, 320 S. Main St. and Bradford Elementary School, 116 Montvale St. respectively. When construction is complete and the new school opens, voters will return to their normal polling places.
Here are the city’s polling places, by ward and precinct. If you don’t know which ward and precinct you live in, visit the City Clerk’s page on the city website.
Ward 1, Precinct 1: Consentino School, 658 Washington St.
Ward 1, Precinct 2: Washington Square Elderly Housing, 25 Washington Square
Ward 1, Precinct 3: Haverhill High School gym, 137 Monument St.
Ward 2, Precincts 1 and 2: North Point Bible College, 320 S. Main St.
Ward 2, Precinct 3: Moody School, 59 Margin St.
Ward 3, Precinct 1: Citizens Center, 10 Welcome St.
Ward 3, Precinct 2: Haverhill Public Library, Summer Street
Ward 3, Precinct 3: Universalist Unitarian Church, Ashland Street
Ward 4, Precinct 1: Nettle School, 150 Boardman St.
Ward 4, Precinct 2: Northern Essex Community College, 100 Elliot St.
Ward 4, Precinct 3: Kennedy Circle Elderly Housing, Kennedy Circle
Ward 5, Precinct 1: Julian Steele Elderly Housing, 772 Washington St.
Ward 5, Precinct 2: First Presbyterian Church, 346 Broadway
Ward 5, Precinct 3: West Congregational Church, 767 Broadway
Ward 6, Precinct 1: Haverhill High School, 137 Monument St.
Ward 6, Precinct 2: John Greenleaf Whittier School, 256 Concord St.
Ward 6, Precinct 3: Pentucket Lake School, 252 Concord St.
Ward 7, Precinct 1: Elderly Housing Community Room, Greystone Avenue
Ward 7, Precincts 2 and 3: Bradford Elementary School, 116 Montvale St.
My next question is, how can we be assured that ALL OF THE VOTES WILL BE COUNTED?
Considering what has happened on Kenoza Avenue, it makes one wonder if someone will swoop in to “stack the deck in the preferred party’s favor.” We can never be certain that every vote will be counted under any circumstances, BUT one of the reasons I did not take part in early voting is that very question.
That, and the fact that if the favored party is not the choice of the homeowner with the signs planted on his/her lawn, trouble with the City follows.
In my opinion, the biggest news story of this election locally was liberal hack mayor Jimmy Taxman going out of his way to deny someone their Constitutional Rights to Free Speech by instructing a tax paying citizen of the city to remove campaign signs for the candidate he did not support. He even went so far as to threaten this citizen with fines if the signs were not removed. Little did mayor Taxman know that the citizen wasn’t going to back down. This obvious political attempt to interfere in someone’s rights were so egregious that it made national news!!
And now we have a city clerk who was appointed this disgusting mayor running the election. She has a 30+ year affiliation with this corrupt mayor, haven been given other jobs in the past by him too. How can people voting in the city of Haverhill be absolutely certain that when they vote for a candidate that it will be recorded for the person they want it to be??? Incidents of voter tampering and fraud are playing out literally all across this country.
We’ve already had the corrupt mayor try to interfere in this election once….how do we know he won’t pull some scumbag move when it comes to actual votes?