Hyannis Hotel Hosts Election For Country 4,800 Miles Away: Report

HYANNIS, MA — Some Cape Cod residents chose new political leadership this month – but from their ballots to the location of the ballot box, this was unlike most voting in Massachusetts.

One-hundred-seventy-four citizens of Bulgaria stopped in at a Hyannis resort to take part in their country’s April 19 parliamentary elections, the Provincetown Independent reported last week.

The Cape is home to a large Bulgarian population, and Hyannis has previously hosted Bulgarian ballot-casting – despite being 4,800 miles from that country in southeast Europe.

This year, Hyannis was one of only 20 such polling places in the U.S., according to the Independent. Boston was another.

Usually, voting on the Cape has been at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable. But a scheduling conflict there forced the polling station’s volunteer leader to find a different spot. Other churches were booked, too. Ultimately, the station settled on a rented basement conference room at the Caribbean-themed Margaritaville Resort.

There, paper ballots went into a clear plastic box. Volunteers counted each by hand, then sent the results to officials in Bulgaria, seven time zones away.

The Cape voters ushered in a new political party, “Progressive Bulgaria,” by a whopping 46 percent. In Bulgaria, the result was nearly identical.

To read the Independent’s coverage, click here.

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