ity and town clerks are bracing for long lines and bottlenecks today, as an anticipated 3.1 million Massachusetts voters arrive at the polls to confront one of the longest and most complex election ballots in state history.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin predicts about 77.5 percent of registered voters will turn out, and said bedroom communities from the upper Cape to suburbs west of Boston, where most people vote just before and after work, may face the biggest logjams.
Lines may also be especially long in communities like Brookline, Everett, and Waltham, where electronic voting machines are used, and, typically, only six machines are set up at each polling station.
''You'll have 2,000 people trying to go through six machines for eight ballot questions,'' Galvin said.
Some cities may enforce time limits for voting if waits become excessive. Those still in line at 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast ballots, Galvin said.
Though it is seldom used, state law limits individuals to five minutes in the voting booth when there is a line and 10 minutes when no one is waiting.
Waltham City Clerk Peter Koutoujian has urged residents to vote during nonrush-hour times to ease the crush of activity in the morning and evening. Koutoujian has printed a summary of the eight ballot questions in the local paper, advising residents to clip it and bring it with them to the voting booths.
Spouses who typically vote together in the evening when one returns from work may want to abandon that tradition this year, he said.
''It will be jammed in the morning and evening,'' said Koutoujian, who is predicting an 80 percent turnout in Waltham.
The eight ballot questions cover a range of issues, from tax cuts to universal health care, a proposal to limit voting by incarcerated felons, and an initiative to ban dog racing. The length and volume of questions has forced elections workers to print ballots in smaller-than-usual type.
State law requires the polls to be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., but some may open as early as 5:45 a.m., state elections officials said.
Those staffing polling stations are stressing that voters should come prepared, hopefully with their minds made up. The state's Web site, www.state.ma.us/sec/ele, lists summaries of the ballot questions and provides voting locations for all cities and towns.
''It's going to be huge, based on the number of calls we're getting and the number of people who have been voting absentee through the office and through the mail,'' said Teresa Neighbor, executive director of the Cambridge Elections Commission.
Neighbor said the city has added extra workers to both shepherd large crowds at the polling stations and limit their voting time to five minutes if the lines become excessive.
In Boston, 6,425 absentee ballots have already been cast, a higher-than-usual number, according to elections officials. Elections chairwoman Nancy Lo said some of the busier areas in the North End, Copley Square, South Boston, West Roxbury, and Allston/Brighton may have to enforce time limits if the polling stations become clogged.
Lo said she is also worried about the number of complex ballot questions and the text-book-size type used to squeeze all of the initiatives on the panel.
''We are trying to address it, printing out summaries so voters can read them in line and take them in with them in case the print is too small,'' Lo said.
The lines may be a nuisance, but Galvin said they reflect high voter interest in the election. The weather should cooperate, too; clear skies and temperatures in the 50s have been predicted.
Voters also will decide whether to return US Senator Edward M. Kennedy to office. Republican Jack E. Robinson and Libertarian Carla Howell are running against Kennedy.
If Galvin is correct, and 3.1 million voters cast ballots today, that would be a record. The previous record for the number of votes cast was set in 1992, when 2.8 million people turned out, choosing Bill Clinton to succeed President George Bush, Galvin said.
But the highest percentage turnout since records have been kept was 91.73 percent in 1960, when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon for the presidency.
