MANCHESTER, NH – With less than an hour to go until the polls close, reports from all wards is a strong turn-out for the midterm elections, with several ward clerks requesting additional voter registration forms – each ward was given an initial 300 to start, according to City Clerk Matt Normand.
Dominic Masucci was among those who registered on the spot at the polls Tuesday.
“I feel good about voting. A lot’s changing and it’s good to be a part of it. I care about a lot of things, including equality,” Masucci said.
Turnout in Ward 4 was also steady and heavier than usual, according to Election official Brenda Lett, who was manning the ballot machine at lunchtime.
She explained that due to a malfunction, the city had to deliver another machine, and then another.
“The machine jammed at a count of 52, and so the clerk came and changed out the machine, but that one wasn’t working, so we had to get another one,” Lett said. Ballots were collected and watched over by election officials until a new machine was up and running.
“It’s running smoothly now. We had to feed in about 250 ballots,” Lett said. She added that the jam likely was caused by the longer ballots due to the addition of two ballot questions, and voters’ urge to hang on to their paper ballots.
“The machine take them, but people tend to hold on to them,” Lett said. “They just have to let it go.”
Normand said a machine in Ward 3 also malfunctioned and had to be replaced.
Below is a look at some of the action from around the city, curated from social media.
