Photo: Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman retrieving the final ballots in the town’s drop box

Despite the day-long rain and coming off a Monday holiday that tapped down the number of in-person voting, Belmont still saw more than a quarter of registered voters cast ballots in the 2022 state primary election on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Just a hair short of 5,000 votes were registered (4,995) with the bulk coming from early and mail-in votes as more than 3,600 residents requested ballots using the “I Want To Vote!” postcards (see photo below). A good number of residents also utilized the drop box outside the Town Hall over the weekend and up until the last minute of voting at 8 p.m. when Town Clerk Ellen Cushman fished out the last of the ballots with her smart phone being used as a flashlight.

With the added options to vote and the need for ballots to be couriered over to the respective precincts to be counted, the night’s tallying took a considerable time with the final results coming in well past 10 p.m.

“We’ve discovered we have a lot more to do” now, said Cushman as she sent three volunteers with the last batch of votes to the town’s eight polling stations.

In the election results – you can find them here – Belmont was a bellwether among those towns known for past progressive voting patterns. In one of the competitive races closely followed by voters, Democratic candidate for state Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell received 59 percent of Belmont’s tally, a significant upgrade from her 50 percent she garnered statewide in her win.

In the Democratic state auditor’s race, Belmont voters backed the more progressive Chris Dempsey over Methuen state senator Diana DiZoglio, 59 to 40 percent, while state-wide DiZoglio bested the transportation advocate, 54 to 46 percent.

On the Republican side of the ledger, the Donald Trump-backed Geoff Diehl – who won the primary for governor over challenger Chris Doughty, 55 to 45 percent – could only muster 44 percent of Belmont voters (and less than 400 actual votes) to Doughty’s 56 percent.