Mansfield Getting About 200 Early Voters Per Day

MANSFIELD, MA — Over a thousand people in town have already taken advantage of the ability to vote early.

According to Town Clerk Marianne Staples, 1,100 people have cast a ballot since early voting started in Massachusetts on Monday. Staples said the town hall is seeing about 200 voters per day, and on Wednesday, 400 voters came out because to polls being open until 8 p.m.

At this time two years, ago, there were about twice as many voters as there have been so far. Staples believes the smaller turnout is attributed to this being a midterm election rather than a presidential election year.

She added that candidates dropping out before the Republican primary last year could be attributing to less people voting early.

"Last year when (Marco) Rubio quit, everyone wanted to cancel their votes. Obviously that's not allowed," Staples said.

Other people might just like voting on the actual election day, Staples said.

“A lot of people like to vote traditionally, show up at the polls, and feel the ballot and watch it go into the machine," Staples said. “The important thing is people get out and vote.”

The rest of the early voting schedule can be found below:

Friday, Oct. 26, 2018: 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Saturday Oct. 27, 2018: 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Monday, Oct. 29, 2018: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 2, 2018: 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Although Mansfield has seen lower early voter turnout, some parts of the country are reporting record turnout, including counties in Nevada, Kansas and Idaho.

Election day is Nov. 6.

Photo by Dan Libon