Hopes dimmed overnight for Democratic wins for the White House, Senate or House of Representatives, but Massachusetts went reliably blue (62 percent with nearly 85 percent of the vote counted, according to The Associated Press) and Cambridge and Somerville residents voted Tuesday in strong support of the Democratic presidential ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz – no surprise in cities that have long leaned left.
In Cambridge, 46,891 voters cast ballots and 40,371 of them, or 86.1 percent, were for the Democrats, according to unofficial results posted at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday by the city’s Election Commission. The Republican ticket of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance were barely within view at 3,948 votes, or 8.4 percent. (There were 411 unresolved write-in ballots and some third parties who drew votes; the most went to Jill Stein’s Green Party candidacy.)
According to unofficial results from Somerville’s Elections Commission, there were 38,606 ballots cast in the election and the Democratic ticket of Harris-Walz got 32,047, or 83 percent of ballots, while the Republican ticket of Trump-Vance got 4,435 votes, or 11.5 percent of the vote.
Yet in each city, turnout was down – in Cambridge by nearly 15 percent from the turnout of 55,039 in the election four years ago and in Somerville by nearly 9 percent, to a turnout of 38,606 from 42,379. There was also less Democratic enthusiasm, with Cambridge votes for Harris-Walz dropping by 5.2 percentage points from the Democratic win four years ago of Joe Biden and Harris. Somerville saw a drop of 4.4 percentage points. Republican votes rose 2 percentage points in Cambridge and 1.4 percentage points in Somerville, according to the unofficial results.
There was little hint of this Tuesday afternoon. Leaving the polls, many people spoke of the possibility that America could soon have its first female president, and there was plenty of Harris-Walz merch being worn or toted along with red, white and blue garb complemented by “I voted” stickers.
In voting for several statewide ballot questions, things look more liberal: There were lopsided wins for several things, including ending MCAS standardized tests as a graduation requirement and rideshare driver unionizing. (All won in Cambridge and Somerville, but two lost statewide: legalizing psychedelic substances and increase minimum wage of tipped employees.)
But while some voters said they were Harris fans who genuinely liked her statements and ideas, others chose her only because they don’t like former president Donald Trump.
We spoke with voters at two Somerville voting sites, the Albert F. Argenziano School and the East Somerville Community School, and two Cambridge voting sites, City Hall and the Morse School, to take their temperature Election Day.
Fervor for Harris
Peggy Kociubes, who voted early, said her choice was “never in question.” Likewise, Sam Seidel, 58, said he didn’t consider any other candidates.
“As Liz Cheney said, this one isn’t even close, but I would’ve voted for [Harris] anyway,” said Seidel at the Argenziano School. “To say [Trump]’s dangerous doesn’t even get close to what he is. Some of our military leaders have called him fascist in his thinking.”
Caitlyn Murphy, 39, voting at the East Somerville Community School, described Harris as “a good human, not a racist, not a misogynist,” referring to her as “my girl!”
“The choice just couldn’t be more clear, in my opinion. It’s not a Republican-Democrat thing, because I have voted for both in my life,” Murphy said. “It’s about decency and depravity. I don’t want to quote her rallies, but she’s got a to-do list and he has an enemies list.”
Isabelle Hurley, a 23-year-old researcher, was at the Argenziano School voting for Harris “because of women’s rights and everyone’s rights.”
Voting against Trump
Some voters were less excited about the Democratic ticket but wound up making the same calculation.
For Matthew Ochlis, 25, the explanation is simple: “I voted for Harris because I really don’t like Trump,” he said on his way out from voting at ESCS.
Jason Sachs, 59, called Trump “divisive and not good for this country.” His wife Elif, 58, with whom he was voting at ESCS, said, “The other side of the ticket is a joke.”
“The alternative is terrifying to me and to people I love and people I don’t know yet,” said Casey Cross Zussman, 43, who voted at City Hall in Cambridge.
Voters referred to recent descriptions of Trump as fascist by John Kelly, the longest-serving chief of staff in Trump’s White House. Kathy Aluia, 63, who was voting at ESCS, said the Republican party has shifted, becoming a “fascist party,” a thought mirrored by Kyle Amgan, 34: “My rationale was that I didn’t want to vote for a person who’s fascist.”
Maya Israelsson, an 18-year-old student voting for the first time at the Morse School in Cambridge, said she “probably wouldn’t go to school tomorrow out of sadness” if Trump wins.
Issues with Harris
Some Harris voters made their decisions begrudgingly. Molly Farust-Wylie, 42, who was voting at the Argenziano School, said she voted for Harris “honestly, mostly to keep Donald Trump out of office.”
“My values are not necessarily totally aligned with where the party is, so it was a difficult choice,” Farust-Wylie said.
Much of her decision was informed by a desire to protect reproductive rights – nine years ago, she had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured, almost killing her. “Basically everything he stands for, I do not,” Farust-Wylie said.
But she’s also “not very excited” about Harris as a candidate. She’s taken issue with the current administration’s handling of the Palestinian conflict, as well as Harris’ response on the campaign trail. “I’ve been really disappointed that she has not spoken up for the people of Palestine and now Lebanon,” said Farust-Wylie, who identified herself as Jewish. “We need to have an arms embargo … the endless checks need to stop.”
Amgan, who works in sustainability, said Harris “needs some work on her policies,” but voted for her as a “vote against Trump more than anything else.” If Trump won, he would be upset, including from a sustainability perspective, on which Trump’s policies “set the U.S. back 30 to 40 years.”
“That’s a major concern of mine, and it’s also a reason I’m not as optimistic as I would like to be about the Harris administration,” Amgan said.
Mixed predictions
Some voters believed Democrats will come through and Harris will win.
“I think that we’re ready for a female president, and I’m also very confident that Americans will choose democracy,” Aluia said.
Greggy Bazile, a 21-year-old designer voting at City Hall for the first time, said he “feels like” she will win. “I think there’s more urgency now to vote against Trump” compared with the 2016 election, Bazile said.
Murphy thinks there will be more secret Harris voters this time. “I’ve got this little something in me that tells me it could break our way,” she said.
Others think Trump shot himself in the foot by taking his behavior too far, resulting in lost supporters. Ochlis said he’s more confident that Harris will win than he was a couple weeks ago, because “Trump seems like he’s getting more ridiculous.”
“I think the outrageousness that has gone on has just multiplied, and I think the American people will make the right choice,” Kociubes said.
But others are not so sure.
Hurley described herself as “uneasy but hopeful.”
“The last time I voted I lived in a rural area in Maine, and saw a lot of the flip side, so I feel like there’s reason for unease – but I’m still optimistic,” she said.
Rashi Jeeda, a 24-year-old grad student, said she would like to think Harris will win, but isn’t sure. “Especially seeing online that there’s low voter turnout for young people, I worry,” Jeeda said.
Fear over the alternative
Voters said they would feel “upset,” “scared,” “saddened,” “uncertain,” “unsafe” and “devastated” with a Trump win.
Seidel said it would be a “very scary time for America.”
“I think he is actually un-American, I think he’s been un-American for a very long time,” he said.
Seidel’s word – “scary” – came up a lot.
“I need to stay positive and hopeful, but it is really scary to me that there’s even a question,” Cross Zussman said.
Murphy, who works as an eighth-grade public school science teacher in Everett, would fear for her students, as well as herself. “We have a big immigrant and low-income population, and I’m nervous about what could happen to them and their families,” Murphy said. “And as a woman and as someone who supports women, I’m nervous about health care.”
In the event Trump is elected, no one can give up, she said. “We can’t just throw our hands up in the air and cry. We need to wrap our arms around those people and say okay, what can we do to protect you? We can cry for a minute but then we have to do something. It’s not over,” Murphy said.
Kociubes agreed. “I would figure out ways to talk about this to my family and friends, to say that it’s not the end of the world,” she said.
And Hurley would be “hopeful that our democratic processes can continue to evolve and move through that period of time.”
Other candidates and methods
A 19-year-old said she was voting for Trump because she was better off four years ago, that life “was better when he was in office.”
“I don’t really like Kamala, I don’t really like the things she says,” the voter said. “I think a lot of people are voting for her because of abortions, and I don’t think that’s the only thing we need in this country.”
She’s “not really” confident that Trump will win. But she said it was still important to her to vote for him.
Daphne Jochnick, 57, also declined to vote for Harris. She chose the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, as part of an initiative called Swap Your Vote.
“I was matched with somebody in a swing state who agreed to vote for Kamala Harris if two people in Massachusetts, a safe state, voted for their preference, Jill Stein,” Jochnick explained.
She has voted third party in the past, because like Farust-Wylie, she isn’t always pleased with Democrats. “In this situation, it would be really hard, given the genocide, for me to be voting for Kamala,” Jochnick said.
Farust-Wylie considered voting for a third party candidate or swapping her vote too.
“Those were things that I really wrestled with and had a lot of long conversations with people about,” Farust-Wylie said.
This post was updated Nov. 6, 2024, to correct a description of ballot question wins. It was updated Nov. 7, 2024, to remove a name of a person who said they were facing retaliation.
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