Town Clerk Expects Low Turnout at Polls Tuesday

Residents of the Commonwealth will head to the polls Tuesday for a Senate special election. Reading residents can vote at the field house at Reading Memorial High School between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Town Clerk Laura Gemme expects a slow day at the polls, but has seen an increase in requests for absentee ballots over the past couple of days.

"We were expecting a very low turnout, but our absentee ballot requests have picked up in the last couple of days so I don't know if that is an indicator or not," she said. "Only time will tell."

The estimated total of absentee ballot requests in Reading is about 150, Gemme said, which is more than they had for the local election in April.

They may get more voters than they anticipated Tuesday, but for the most part they are expecting a low turnout, she said.

Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is concerned about the turnout across the state given the low number of absentee ballots requested, according to myfoxboston.com. 

Only 49,748 absentee ballots have been requested for the upcoming election, which is a smaller number than the 63,610 absentee ballots that were requested one week before the Senate special election held in January of 2010, myfoxboston.com said.

Both Republican Gabriel Gomez and Democrat Ed Markey are in the race for the Senate seat once held by John Kerry.