Election 2022: Vote-By-Mail Pushes Andover To 22.6 Percent Turnout In Massachusetts Primary

Despite few contested local races, 5,727 Andover residents cast votes in Tuesday’s state primary election, according to unofficial results from the Town Clerk’s office.

Credit vote-by-mail rules, adopted for 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic and made permanent in Massachusetts last year, for 22.6 percent turnout of Andover’s 25,732 registered voters. While the unofficial results do not include information on how ballots were cast, Andover had received 3,265 requests for mail-in ballots as of Aug. 9, 20 days before the vote-by-mail application deadline. Tuesday’s election was the first midterm state primary under the rules allowing more widespread voting by mail.

By comparison, 7,980 Andover voters cast ballots in the state primary in 2020, which included Joseph Kennedy III challenging Sen. Edward Markey in the Democratic primary. In the last midterm state primary in 2018, 5,204 Andover voters went to the polls. That year’s ballot included an 10-way race in the Democratic primary for the MA-3 representative in Congress, which represents precincts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 in Andover. The race was narrowly won by Rep. Lori Trahan.

Voter Turnout By Year For State Primary In Andover

The biggest draws for Andover voters in this year’s primary were the contested statewide races, including Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and Auditor. There were also Democratic primaries for Essex County District Attorney between James O’Shea and Paul Tucker and Essex County Sheriff between incumbent Kevin Coppinger and Virginia Leigh.

But the candidates running for the two seats representing Andover in the state House of Representatives and in the race for the state senator representing Andover ran unopposed in their primaries.

How Andover Voted In Tuesday’s State Primary

This document shows the unofficial results released by the Andover Town Clerk at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday:

Deadlines, Information For The Nov. 8 General Election In Andover

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 8 general election is Oct. 29, 2022. You can register to vote online or by visiting the Town Clerk’s office.

The deadline to submit a vote-by-mail application for the general election is Nov. 1. You’ll need to do this if you want to vote by mail and did not submit a request for your general election ballot when you applied to vote by mail in Tuesday’s primary.

If you did not receive the mailing from the Secretary of State, you can download an application on the town’s Website. You can track your application and ballot status here.

The state will again allow towns, including Andover, to conduct early voting. Early voting will begin Oct. 22 through Nov. 4.

We’ll publish more specifics in our Andover Voters Guide when the election date draws closer.

Ballot For Nov. 8 General Election In Andover

With Tuesday’s primary in the books, here’s what the ballot will look like when voters head to the polls for the general election in November. Incumbents are marked with an asterisk (*).

Massachusetts State Senate, 2nd Essex & Middlesex

Barry Finegold (D)*
Sal DeFranco (R)

Massachusetts State House of Representatives, 17th Essex

Frank Moran (D)*

District includes precincts 2-4 in Andover.

Massachusetts State House of Representatives, 18th Essex

Tram Nguyen (D)*
Jeffrey DuFour (R)

District includes precincts 1 and 5-9 in Andover.

Essex County District Attorney

Paul Tucker (D)

Essex County Sheriff

Kevin Coppinger(D)*

U.S. House, Massachusetts District 6

Seth Moulton (D)*
Robert May Jr. (R)

Governor

Maura Healey (D)
Geoff Diehl (R)

Lt. Governor

Kim Driscoll (D)
Leah Cole Allen (R)

Secretary Of State

William Galvin (D)*
Rayla Campbell (R)

Attorney General

Andrea Campbell (D)
James McMahaon (R)

Treasurer

Deb Goldberg (D)*

Auditor

Diana DiZoglio (D)
Anthony Amore (R)

Governor’s Council District 5

Eileen Duff (D)*
Michael Walsh (R)