Three small towns on the South Coast of Massachusetts reflected what a majority of Democratic voters in the state confirmed at the polls, dropping off early ballots and mailing in votes: They want Ed Markey on the ballot in November.

The race was in the spotlight not only because it was projected to be a tight race, but because it served as a dry run for how mail-in and early voting will work in the general election in November in light of global pandemic. 

“People are really confused and nervous, and I think this is a great dress rehearsal for November,” Marion Town Clerk Elizabeth Magauran said.

Markey beat out US Representative Joe Kennedy III in Marion and Mattapoisett on Sept. 1 with 763 and 865 votes to 594 and 828 votes, respectively. In Rochester, Kennedy won 473 to 448.

Rochester Town Clerk Paul Dawson said that early voting went very well.

“We’re extremely busy, but nevertheless, we were able to to handle it,” Dawson said. 

In Rochester, of the town’s 4,646 registered voters, 1,416, or 30.4% of voters turned out for the primary election, very close to 30.68% of voters that came out for the Presidential primary race in March. For early voting, 1,087 voters, or 23.4% of all registered voters requested an early voting ballot. It is unclear how many of those who requested early voting ballots returned them. 

In Marion, of the town’s 4,189 registered voters, 1,722, or 41.1% voted in the state primaries, which is not far off from the 43.1% of voters who turned out for Super Tuesday in March. As of Aug. 28, the town sent out 1,298 early voting ballots and received back 840 votes as of Aug. 31. 

In Mattapoisett, 2,175, or 39.7%, of the town’s registered 5,484 voters cast their ballots in the state primaries. 

Some of the confusion around early voting lies in stories of people getting more than one ballot in the mail, or requesting a ballot and never receiving one, according to Magauran.

She said that a person may have received more than one ballot because the state sent everyone an application to vote by mail for this election, but the town also sent a second application to people who recently changed their information with the Registry of Motor Vehicles. If a resident sent two applications, they received two ballots. Only one is counted, though.

For those who didn’t receive a ballot after requesting one, Magauran said it was because residents didn’t fill out which party they wanted to receive a ballot for. This will differ for the general election because the ballot is not party-specific, unlike the Sept. 1 primary elections.

Because Marion is so small, the Town Clerk’s office called residents to have them fill out the rest of the application and receive a ballot. In bigger cities, those applications would have been rejected automatically, Magauran said.

“We’re really trying to give everyone the chance to vote,” Magauran said.

From a procedural standpoint as Town Clerk, Dawson said that the postal service handled sending and returning ballots in a timely manner. For those who are skeptical of early voting, he added that people have been utilizing absentee voting for years, and the process hasn’t changed much.

“This new normal presents new opportunities, and early voting is one of them,” Dawson said. 

In November, Markey will go up against attorney and longstanding member of the Massachusetts legal community Kevin O’ Connor who won in Marion and Mattapoisett.

Markey has been a US senator for Massachusetts since 2013 and a US representative since 1976. He helped author the Green New Deal, a policy proposal addressing climate change and economic inequality, and co-sponsored Medicare for All, a bill that would create a universal single-payer health care system — policies also supported by Kennedy.

Markey fended off Kennedy who is a son of former US Representative Joseph Kennedy II and has been a US representative for Massachusetts’ fourth congressional district since 2013, when he took the seat after former representative Barney Frank retired. 

According to his campaign website, O’Connor is an attorney and longstanding member of the legal community in Massachusetts, serving on the executive committee for the Boston Bar Association Council and holding a number of other roles with the association. He supports term limits and free enterprise. 

He fended off Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai in the Tri-Town and statewide. He holds a Ph.D in biological engineering from MIT and claims to have invented email, claims that have been largely discredited. He ran against Elizabeth Warren as an independent in the US Senate race in 2018, earning 3.4% of the vote. He advocates for coronavirus to be treated with vitamin supplements. 

O’Connor fended off Dr. Ayyadurai in Marion, 213 to 152.

In Mattapoisett, O’Connor won 265 votes, while Dr. Ayyaduari won 202 votes.

In Rochester, Dr. Ayyadurai won 245 votes, and O’Connor won 221 votes. 

See the attachments above for the full election results for Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester.