SOUTHWICK – Voters were lined up at the polls before they even opened in Southwick Tuesday morning, and the majority of them cast their ballot for Donald Trump.
Town Clerk Michelle Hill said 39-percent of registered voters came to the polls yesterday, which is 2,645 voters.
Southwick has only one polling location, at the Town Hall, so everyone in the community of 9,500 must vote there. It is one of only seven communities in western Massachusetts that has more registered Republicans than Democrats.
The majority of those Democrats supported Bernie Sanders. Sanders received 630 votes, while his opponent Hillary Clinton received 453. Trailing Trump’s 758 votes was Republican candidate John Kasich received 256. Marco Rubio earned 239 votes in Southwick, while Ted Cruz received 100 and Ben Carson had 42 votes.
There are more voters registered as unenrolled in Southwick than anything else.
John Vogel of Southwick said that he always makes sure to vote in the primaries.
“I think it’s very important that we vote, I think everybody should,” Vogel said. “I think the percentage of people that vote is pretty sad. It should be like 95-99 percent of the people in this country that actually vote.”
Political experts predict that unenrolled voters will have a big affect on this election cycle in Massachusetts and several other Super Tuesday states.
Hill called the turnout Tuesday _decent,” however she always hopes more residents will vote. The last primary presidential election brought out just 14-percent of Southwick voters, however, in 2012, 34-percent of registered voters exerized their right to vote.Hill said early predictions suggest the election will come down to Trump and Clinton.
“That will make a pretty hot election in November,” she said.
