In Massachusetts, Super Tuesday voters look to make their mark
SOMERVILLE - If your voting location seems quieter and less busy than usual, election officials say it's not a reflection of how many people actually voted.
In Somerville, election worker Sandy Margolin said the morning felt slow. "I would say it's about half," she said. She and other volunteers speculated it may be because so many people voted early or already mailed in their ballots.
"It's easy to early vote, absentee vote; you don't necessarily need to come in," said Lee Dennis.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin projected a good Super Tuesday turnout. "We had a good head start because we had had over half a million people vote by mail. In fact, that number has continued to go up," he said after he cast his own ballot.
Some political plot twists drew Massachusetts residents to the polls, including a movement to check "no preference" instead of Biden on the Democratic ballot to protest the United States' policy in Gaza.
"This time, it was pretty meaningful for me," said Reshma Hussam of Somerville. "Usually being in Somerville or Massachusetts, it's pretty uncontested, but I voted no preference."
Also, Galvin said, there's been a rise in "unenrolled" registrations, allowing Democrats to potentially throw support to Republican Nikki Haley in an effort to slow frontrunner Donald Trump's momentum.
"I know a lot of people who are now unenrolled," said John Powers, a voter from West Roxbury. "It's a statement of, really, where we are at in the country."
Early counts estimate that about 582,739 people cast mail-in or early ballots.