City Clerk Michael Matarazzo this week predicted that next week’s statewide election for Governor and other state offices will likely draw close to 50-percent of registered voters in the city, though he believes the interest in this year’s election is less about the candidates and more about the four statewide ballot question initiatives.
In particular, Matarazzo said that voters in Everett seem inclined to vote due to Question 3, the casino ballot question that would repeal the state’s 2011 expanded gaming law if it passes.
“We’ve been getting a lot of people in to vote over the counter,” explained Matarazzo, of the option to vote early at City Hall for voters who will not be able to get to the polls on Election Day. “Plus we’re going to have more than 200 and maybe as many as 300 absentee ballots again as well.”
Matarazzo said that he believes voters are most interested in the ballot question about casinos, since one of the state’s three proposed casino projects would be sited in Everett, as long as the law is not repealed next Tuesday.
“I would’ve expected a lot less voters, had it not been for the casino question,” he noted.
As for the main race on the ballot, between Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker, both of whom are hoping to take over for Deval Patrick on January 1, Mataraazo said he feels this race is very similar to the race between former Governor William Weld and John Silber in 1990.
“Except for the lack of excitement, this race feels very much the way the Weld-Silber race felt to me,” said Matarazzo, who worked on the Weld campaign in 1990 and later worked for Governor We’d at the statehouse. “Maybe it just doesn’t seem as exciting to me, because I am not involved this time, but the way the polling has been going lately, it seems very similar to me.”