Trump Tops Rochester, Clinton Takes Marion

All three towns experienced some delays once polls closed on Tuesday night, delaying results by an hour in Rochester and Marion and over two and a half hours in Mattapoisett. The reason, for the most part, was early voter ballots.

In Rochester, with roughly 900 early voter ballots, or 25% of the voter turnout, it took poll workers all day and into the night to scan the paper ballots into the voting machine with a steady line of voters filing into the Senior Center throughout the day.

And turn-out in Rochester, between early voters and Election Day voters, was high at 75%, keeping poll workers and Town Clerk Naida Parker busy well into the night.

As for the response to early voting, Parker said voters seemed “to like it.”

“They had concerns about the safety of the ballots,” said Parker, with voters worried about someone opening their ballots or tampering with them. “We kept them locked up in the safe and sealed up in the blue tubs.”

In Mattapoisett, Town Clerk Catherine Heuberger began processing the 1,800 early voter ballots in the afternoon, and soon after, the voting machine she was using to enter said ballots malfunctioned, delaying the results well into the night. As of 11:00 pm and press time, although the early voter ballots had all been entered, Hueberger was unable to get the machine to spit out the results and had to call a representative from the company to assist in troubleshooting.

Overall, however, Heuberger reported that early voting “worked out well.”

“Things have been brisk today,” said poll worker William Hall, with a steady stream of voters turning out for the election.

Marion saw a turnout of 82% with a total of 3,316 ballots cast.

In Rochester, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton 1,728-1,336. Gary Johnson received 158 votes and 49 votes went to Jill Stein.

Republican Mark Alliegro was the choice for Representative in Congress with 1,508 votes against incumbent William Keating who received 1,372 votes.

As for questions, Rochester voted ‘no’ on Question 1 to allow a slot gaming establishment with 1,903-1,369. For Question 2 on charter schools, voters chose ‘no,’ 2,104-1,224. On Question 3 pertaining to the confinement of farm animals, Rochester voted ‘yes,’ 2,482-842. And as for Question 4 to legalize marijuana, the vote was close but ultimately Rochester chose ‘yes,’ 1,731-1,619.

In Marion, Clinton beat Trump 1,857-1,156. Johnson received 151 votes and Stein, 49.

Democrat Keating beat Alliegro 1,746-1,144 for Representative in Congress, and Democrat incumbent Marc Pacheco beat Sandra Wright 1,944-1,131.

On the questions, Marion voted ‘no’ on Question 1, 2,130-1,021. On Question 2, Marion chose ‘no,’ 1,732-1,487. Question 3 was ‘yes,’ 2,501-714, and Marion narrowly voted ‘yes’ to legalize marijuana, 1,626-1,615.

The results in Mattapoisett, as of press time, only reflect Tuesday voters. The early votes and absentee ballots results were unavailable:

Clinton: 1,020; Trump: 1,151. Keating was beating Alliegro, 1,063-959. On Question 1: yes 860; no 1,444. Question 2: yes 1,018; no 1,331. Question 3: yes 1,763; no 583. Question 4: yes 1,194; no 1,173.

By Jean Perry

See all the results at: http://wanderer.com/tritown/archive/ST20161108.php

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