The efforts to avoid a repeat of the last gubernatorial election when city officials scrambled to replenish the supply of ballots at various polling places seemed to pay off yesterday.
Those efforts, paired with an expectation of high voter turnout, helped keep things running smoothly at most polling stations in Boston.
Secretary of State William Galvin expected near record high voter turnout for a nonpresidential election.
“So far I think he’s seen nothing to change his projection,” Brian McNiff, a Galvin spokesman, said yesterday afternoon. “There’s the possibility of this being the largest gubernatorial election turnout.”
Galvin projected about 2.4 million voters would participate. The actual turnout, which will not be known for weeks, could rival the record of 2.42 million in 1990.
Polls in suburban communities experienced the heaviest voting in the state, officials said.
As of 6 p.m. in Boston, about 36 percent — about 133,000 — of registered voters went to the polls. Galvin’s office said the Boston numbers from yesterday afternoon were about on pace with 2006 figures.
Heavy voter turnout in 2006 led to some polling stations in Boston running out of ballots.
Poll workers at Cathedral High School in the South End said lines were long first thing in the morning and a steady stream of voters continued to fill the ballot boxes during the after work rush.
