Newton Voter Turnout, Heat, Malfunction, Results

NEWTON, MA — Rep. Joe Kennedy III blew away challenger Gary Rucinski in Newton and went on to keep his seat, according to early unofficial results. Jay Gonzalez won the democratic Primary for Governor, and then Charlie Baker beat out his challenger in the Republican primary.

The heat in Newton caused some issues for poll workers including machine malfunction on primary day but an hour before polls closed, more than 10 percent of the registered voters had cast ballots with minimal disruption, officials at Newton City Hall told Patch.

"It's been steady, but it's been slow. We weren't expecting a lot of people for this one. I was thinking maybe 10 percent [of voters would vote]." said Newton City Clerk David Olson. "But by 3 p.m. we certainly had that many. And it may get up to 18 percent by the end of the day."

>> Check back here later to see election results<<

As of 9:30 p.m. Newton appeared to favor Jay Gonzalez to Bob Massie for governor, the race for Secretary of State was closer with only about 300 votes between the two candidates, then when it came to the the local Congressional races: Kennedy blew away challenger Gary Rucinski and Geoff Diehl secured the Republican Primary for senator.

In neighboring Brookline, where there was a tight primary for State Rep, more than 20 percent of voters had come out to vote by 5 p.m.

In Newton city employees were busy trouble shooting, and making sure poll workers were taken care of and comfortable in the heat. The forecast called for a high of 88 degrees in the Garden City.

"The heat and the humidity definitely affected voting machines today," said Olson. "We had, I think, four in total that were down for a short amount of time. But it was just a matter of clearing the readers and letting them cool off a bit off."

And lest you worry your vote will get lost in the shuffle, Olson said ballots that were taken up during that time were put into hand count slot and those ballots will be added to the count at the end of the night.

The real complicating factor according to the city clerk was the day.

Having the primary the day after Labor Day Newton workers had to get everything delivered out to the polling locations on Friday, because there were no workers on Monday. It also took a bit longer to get poll workers on account of the holiday, said the clerk.

"But everything has been going well, and the team had been doing a phenomenal job," said Olson.

For more on the statewide election check out the results here: MA Primary Election Results

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Voting Day In Newton, What To Know

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Photo by Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).