Quiet Day at the Polls

As expected there was low voter turnout for Tuesday's primaries.

Out of the 13,804 voters in Winchester, only 2,410 came out to vote, which adds up to 17 percent of the registered voters.

"It's been very slow," said Leilanie D'Agostino, Clerk of Precinct 4. "We're the largest precinct in Winchester and usually we have wonderful voter turnout."

This year, out of the 1,898 voters in the precinct, they averaged approximately 30 voters per hour. Compared to the special election earlier this year where Scott Brown won the Senate seat, Winchester's Precinct 4 had 91 percent of its voters turn out to vote.

But with so few races, a slow day was expected across the polls.

"It's just been very slow," said Larry Oliver over at Precinct 8. "There's something like half the races being contested. Normally it's not this slow, but we weren't expecting that busy of a day."

But for Winchester resident Brian Kurowski going to Vinson-Owen to cast his vote was a new experience.

"I never voted at this site before," Kurowski said. "I moved here from Quincy, but the polling place seemed relatively dead. That's good for me though, it's a relief, I don't need to wait on line."

The biggest race was on the ballot this evening was between Gerry Dembrowski (R-Woburn) and former Framingham Charter Commissioner, Thomas Tierney (R-Framingham). Dembrowski took the Winchester votes in the primary 660-215. The winner of the primary will have to face-off against incumbent Edward Markey (D-Malden) in the November elections.

The other Republican race taking place saw Mary Connaughton of Framingham take 738 Winchester votes, beating out Kamal Jain of Lowell (109).

For the Democrats, the most anticipated race was for treasurer. Steve Grossman of Newton tallied 937 Winchester votes, while Stephen Murphy of Boston only received 315 votes from the residents of Winchester.

Suzanne Bump from Great Barrington and the former Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development won 806 votes from the town. Mike Lake of Boston finished second in town with 242 and Guy Glodis, present Sheriff and former State Senator from Auburn, finished with only 220 town votes.

Lastly, Suzanne English-Merullo of Winchester carried her own town fairly easily, tallying 975 votes for the Governor's Councillor's seat. Terrence Kennedy of Lynnfield predictably lost Winchester, as he only received 187 votes.