Bay State Voters to Head to the Polls

Voter turnouts as high as 90 per cent are expected across the state today, as a tight presidential race and the most publicized referendum question in recent years lure Bay State residents to the polls.

Weather forecasters were predicting sunny skies and warm weather today, and local officials said turnout would probably be higher than normal even for a presidential election.

"We're expecting 80 or 90 per cent turnout," Peter Sturgis, one of Cambridge's four election commissioners, said yesterday. The city has 50,605 registered voters.

And state officials said those figures would probably be duplicated across the state, as Massachusetts continues its tradition of beating the nation in percentage of registered voters who cast ballots.

No Elephants

A heavy turnout is expected to aid President Carter's bid for reelection, because Democratic registration in the state is nearly three times greater than Republican. But observers in the city said yesterday that even the Democratic stronghold of Cambridge is not sewn up for the president.

If it's warm, there'll be a lot of elderly people at the polls," one local expert said yesterday, adding that "elderly people, people on fixed incomes, have less reason to back the president."

shown only moderate controversy, but in two of the state's 12 congressional districts, incumbents face major tests.

Real Difference?

One of the state's two Republican representatives, Margaret Heckler, who represents the tenth Congressional district stretching from Wellesley to Fall River, leads narrowly in her race to retain her seat against a strong challenge from Democratic State Rep. Robert E. McCarthy of East Bridgewater.

And on Boston's North Shore, first-term Democratic Congressman Nicholas Mavroules is in a virtual dead heat with Republican Thomas Trimarco of Beverly.