Massachusetts voters cast over 1.1 million ballots early

Nearly 1.17 million Massachusetts residents cast ballots before Election Day, representing a 22.3% turnout rate for early in-person and mail-in voting. According to Secretary of State William Galvin, of the 1,168,590 early ballots submitted, 821,244 were sent by mail and 347,346 were cast in person.

Galvin noted a dramatic increase in early in-person voting, which reached 17% of votes cast compared to 7.5% during the 2022 midterm elections. He attributed this trend to voters wanting more time to review the nine ballot questions. Approximately 242,125 mail ballots remained unreturned as of Tuesday morning, though these can still be counted if postmarked by Tuesday or placed in a drop box by 8 p.m.

In terms of local participation, the town of Gosnold saw the highest early turnout rate at 43.5%. Among communities with at least 20,000 registered voters, Needham recorded the highest turnout at 36.1%.