Fall River area voters head to the polls in Super Tuesday presidential primary election

FALL RIVER — A rain that’s veering between mist and showers has not kept Fall River voters from casting ballots in the presidential primary so far.

At Bristol Community College, where three precincts have been consolidated, Precinct 9A deputy warden Dorothy Mahoney-Pacheco said around 1 p.m. that turnout so far has not been lower -- “it just seems as though the frustration is a lot higher than usual.”

“We’ve had people letting us know that they're having difficulty parking, that it’s a bit of a walk in," she said. “Frustration has definitely ensued, but we’ve definitely seen voters coming out.”

The consolidation has combined polling places at Tansey Elementary School, Spencer Borden Elementary and Cardinal Medeiros Towers into the school’s Commonwealth Center. A security guard at BCC said he has been using a golf cart to ferry elderly and disabled voters from the school’s parking lot to the building.

Mahoney-Pacheco said the consolidation could help some voters who need to bring others who may not vote in the same precinct, and that despite the newness of the situation and some kinks to be worked out, it was a positive change.

“It's phenomenal exposure for BCC,” she said.

Fall River voters split on the presidential candidates

Fran and George Hickey said they both cast Republican ballots for former president Donald Trump, with Fran calling him “the best thing for our country.”

Albert Jalbert said he voted for the incumbent president. “I don’t care for everything that Biden’s doing ... but he’s certainly better than [Trump] in my opinion," he said.

“Of course he has to do something about the border issue.”

His wife, Nancy Jalbert, expressed frustration that their polling place has changed multiple times in the recent past; both she and Albert noted that the accessibility could be difficult for some voters. She said she knows mail-in votes are an option, but preferred not to use it.

“But we're here,” she said. “You’ve got to vote.”

Pedro Pavao, a Trump voter, said he’s considered himself a Republican since seventh grade at Kuss Middle School. “I like Trump,” he said. “He’s the outcast. When you see the outcast, establishment fighting to get him out ... that’s my opinion.”

Another voter, Madeleine, who preferred not to give her last name, described herself as a conservative Republican who picked former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. She said Haley is “more of a diplomat.”

“I'm against abortion most of the time. She’s also anti-abortion, but she wanted to approach the folks on the other side of the aisle, to reach out to them,” Madeleine said. “Let’s find some common ground and start somewhere instead of being so polarizing. I appreciated that.”

Bob and Judy, a couple who declined to give their last names, said they both voted for Biden. “We felt he was the right person for the job,” Judy said. “I know age has been talked about a lot. He still has it together and we feel he can do the best job.”

“I'm 74,” Bob said. “We’re all getting old, right?”

Haley has fans in Fall River

At Union United Methodist Church on Highland Avenue, Patrick Harrington, a Republican, said he cast a ballot for Haley, saying he liked her government experience.

"In the course of watching the debates and reading in the paper and online about [the candidates], she was the candidate I thought would be the best qualified right now -- considering who everybody's pushing," he said.

"We need a woman president," said Les White, who voted for Haley at Government Center in Precinct 4C.

White said he voted for Trump before because Trump is a businessman. He's soured on Trump since, saying "he's always running his mouth."

"Then Jan. 6 ... and then all of his legal problems that he had, I said to myself, no. I’m going to go for a woman president," White said.

Turnout light in mid-afternoon, but mail ballots are significant

At Precinct 7A in the Highlands, which votes at Union United Methodist Church on Highland Avenue, turnout was fairly light with 179 votes around 3 p.m., a steady drizzle falling outside.

Precinct 7B, voting at Government Center, had just over 100 votes around 5 p.m., with Precinct 4C at 141.

Poll workers said those figures were lower than usual, but noted that the city had, earlier today, counted about 3,300 ballots that had arrived by mail.

At Good Shepherd Parish, precincts 3A and 3B reported 265 and 231 votes just after 7 p.m., less than an hour before the close of polls. A poll worker for 3A said that while that figure seems low, it's still higher than the last presidential primary, which saw 204 voters.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Super Tuesday presidential primary voters head to polls in Fall River