PROVINCETOWN — From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 5, Provincetown voters ascended the stairs in town hall and entered the grand auditorium, where they were greeted by a bulletin board with Republican, Libertarian, and Democratic Party ballots and a copy of the Mass. Voters’ Bill of Rights.
After checking in, they proceeded to one of seven voting stations spaced widely throughout the room. They marked their choices by filling in oval bubbles, then placed their ballots in the electronic tabulator machine and claimed their “I Voted” sticker.
The presidential primary on Super Tuesday, when 15 states voted to select party nominees, was Town Clerk Elizabeth Paine’s first major election since taking the job in November 2022. It was also the first election in which the town used its new ImageCast electronic vote tabulator.
The town had previously used a hand-crank ballot box, but Paine said its lock mechanism stopped working. Some residents were dismayed by the change — Provincetown was the last town on Cape Cod to count votes by hand — but Paine said the decision was made to maintain the integrity of the election, an argument voters were in no mood to discount.
“I’m concerned with preserving our democracy,” said Provincetown voter Carol Sherry. To her, this means preventing the election of Donald Trump by any means possible.
“Beating Trump” was a common refrain among the town’s voters. Others expressed concern about the U.S.-Mexico border, abortion access, and the state of the U.S. economy.
“For Provincetown, housing is a real issue,” said Provincetown resident Maureen Riel after she cast her vote. “For the whole country, it’s bullying and patriarchy. I never thought I would live through times like these.”
By the end of the day, the town’s preliminary results, including early voters, were 843 votes for Joe Biden, 19 for Dean Phillips, and 12 for Marianne Williamson in the Democratic Party presidential contest.
On the Republican side, there were 57 Nikki Haley votes, 40 for Donald Trump, and 1 for Asa Hutchinson.
There were also 10 write-in votes, 5 blank ballots, and 52 voters who selected “no preference.”
Encouraged by the 100,000 “uncommitted” votes cast in Michigan’s Feb. 27 Democratic primary, several pro-Palestinian organizations had encouraged voters in Massachusetts to select “no preference” to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The 1,039 votes cast in Provincetown represented about 30 percent of the town’s 3,475 registered voters.
Paine and Assistant Town Clerk Ana Ruiz have attended online training sessions every Wednesday and Thursday since January to prepare. At one of the conferences Paine attended, facilitators taught breathing techniques to keep calm during the intense parts of election cycles.
“I wake up thinking about voting,” said Paine. “I was familiar with the process, but I really did not understand how meticulous the state was about it.”
Voters in Wellfleet cast 709 votes in the Democratic Party primary, in which Joe Biden received 611 votes. Dean Phillips received 17 votes, Marianne Williamson 11, and “no preference” received 51.
In the Republican primary there were 337 total votes, and Donald Trump and Nikki Haley almost tied, garnering 159 and 158 votes respectively. Nine voters picked “no preference,” and three voted for Chris Christie.
In Eastham, where 1,885 voters cast primary ballots, Biden also dominated the Democratic ballot with 964 votes. Nikki Haley received 379 Republican votes and Donald Trump received 362. There were a total of 62 “no preference” votes.
Truro did not provide preliminary returns before Tuesday night’s deadline. This story will be updated online to include that town’s primary results.
