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Voters who haven’t already cast ballots early or by mail go to the polls today to choose their political party’s choice of presidential nominee in the state.
They will also decide who will serve as their state committee man or woman or as members of local party ward committees on Democrat, Libertarian or Republican party ballots.
On the Democratic side, voters decide between incumbent President Joseph R. Biden, Dean Phillips or Marianne Williamson as their presidential preference. Those taking Libertarian a ballot have a choice of Jacob George Hornberger, Michael D. Rectenwald, Chase Russell Oliver, Michael Ter Maat or Lars Damian Mapstead. On the Republican side, voters choose between Chris Christie, Ryan Binkley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, Donald J. Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. Voters may also write-in a candidate they prefer on any ballot.
As far as electing party officials, all but one State Committee candidate is named on the ballots, organized between the city’s two state Senate districts—First Essex District, currently represented by Sen. Pavel M. Payano, and Second Essex and Middlesex District, currently represented by Sen. Barry R. Finegold. LaNita Ann Dykes of Amesbury is seeking election as Democratic state committee woman in the Second Essex and Middlesex District, but she said her name was mistakenly omitted from the ballot by the Amesbury clerk’s office. She is asking Democratic voters in the district to write in her name in the space provided.
Haverhill City Clerk Kaitlin M. Wright told WHAV she advises voters to either review sample ballots online or at their polling places before requesting a ballot. First, she notes, those enrolled in a party may take only that party’s ballot. Second, unenrolled voters must be careful when choosing a ballot.
“What we’re seeing, and the state is seeing as a whole, is a lot of people are thinking Libertarian mean unenrolled. They hear Democrat, Republican and Libertarian and they assume because they don’t know what a Libertarian is, that must be independent,” she explained. “People are requesting a Libertarian ballot and then looking at it and going, ‘This is not what I wanted,” but unfortunately when you go to vote in person and you say as an unenrolled voter ‘I want A,’ and then you look at and it’s not what you want. That is your only option. We cannot spoil the ballot or anything like that. That is what you’re left with.”
Haverhill’s current number of registered voters is 49,573. Those choosing to vote by mail number 6,753, but as of Monday morning, 4,218 had been returned. Mail-in ballots will be accepted up until 8 p.m. election night. Wright, however, advises residents who haven’t already returned them to deliver them to City Hall and not put them in the mail.
“We’ve just been seeing a lot of delays with the Postal Service. I think part of it is them not being able to keep up with the demand of an election…I have seen ballots take 10 days to get from one side of Haverhill to the other,” she said.
Finally, Wright warns those with mail-in ballots must sign the inner ballot envelope. “I can’t accept it if somebody doesn’t sign. We’ll do our best to call them, but we may not be able to get to them.”
Polls are open 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.