Massachusetts Turnout: 1.17 Million Voted Early as Galvin Projected 2.5 Million Ballots; Boston Trailed the State

The Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill (file photo). Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Nearly 1.17 million Massachusetts voters cast ballots before Election Day, and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin projected about 2.5 million would vote in all, as the state chose a governor, a U.S. senator, nine House members and nine ballot questions. Boston’s turnout ran behind the statewide pace through Election Day.

Early voting jumped

As of Tuesday morning, 1,168,590 people had voted early, 22.3% of registered voters, according to Galvin’s office, NBC Boston reported:

• Mail ballots: 821,244 (70.3% of early votes)
• Early in-person: 347,346 (29.7%)
• Still outstanding: 242,125 mail ballots, or 22.8% of those sent out

In-person early voting grew sharply from the last midterm. In 2022 it made up about 7.5% of votes cast, a little more than 188,400 ballots, NBC Boston reported, while Galvin said mail voting was about the same as four years ago. Galvin had projected 2.5 million total voters, Boston 25 News reported.

Boston lagged the state

By 4 p.m. Monday, 14.7% of Boston’s registered voters had already cast ballots, compared with 22.2% statewide, the Dorchester Reporter reported. Of the 62,652 Boston residents who voted early, 15,343 voted in person and 47,309 by mail or absentee ballot. Citywide turnout reached 19.78% by noon on Election Day, the city Election Department said, as we reported Tuesday.

Final count will take days

Mailed ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 count if they arrive by 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, so final turnout will not be known until next week. Official figures will be posted on the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s turnout statistics page.

What voters decided

• Governor: Maura Healey won a second term, and Senate: Ed Markey won a third term, the AP projected. See our Massachusetts results story.
• U.S. House: All nine seats were held by Democrats going into the election, and six were contested, MassLive reported. In the open 6th District, left open when Seth Moulton ran for Senate, Democrat Dan Koh defeated Republican Micah Q. Jones, The Hill reported.
• Ballot questions: Voters kept legal cannabis and the 2024 gun law and approved Election Day registration. Our results for all nine questions has the details.

Race-by-race results are on our Massachusetts election tracker, and our New England roundup covers Maine and New Hampshire.

Sources

• NBC Boston: Massachusetts voter turnout, early and mail-in voting
• Boston 25 News: Galvin projects 2.5 million voters
• Dorchester Reporter: Boston turnout lags statewide average
• MassLive via Yahoo: Massachusetts U.S. House races
• The Hill: Koh wins Moulton’s open seat