Barrington Democrats overwhelmingly voted for incumbent Congressman David Cicilline in the Rhode Island Democratic primary on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

Cicilline walloped his principal challenger, Anthony Gemma, for the chance to return to Washington D.C. to represent District 1. He got 72.5 percent of the vote; Gemma got 22.9 percent, and the other Democrat on the ballot, Christopher Young, got 4.6 percent.

The vote was 813 to 257 with Cicilline besting Gemma by wide margins at all the polls. Young got 52 votes in Barrington.

Cicilline also convinced Democrats statewide that he should get another chance to run for Congress against Republican Brendan Doherty.  He was leading with 61.6 percent of the vote with 99 percent of the precincts reporting.

Gemma had 30.7 percent; Young had the remaining 7.7 percent.

The voter turnout in Barrington was expected to be light, and it was. Only about 27 percent of “active” registered Democrats voted.

There are 4,012 active Democrats in Barrington, according to Clare Boyes, head of the Barrington Board of Canvassers.

Spurts of voters showed up at Barrington High School, with many coming over the lunch hour, according to a poll worker there. Voting then fell off for the rest of the day.

Burton Greifer, a poll worker at Barrington Middle School, said the turnout was steady but light, although the middle school was believed to be the first poll to hit 200 voters.

Eventually, all of the polls but Nayatt School had 200 or more voters, with Hampden Meadows edging out the middle school by a 239-237 margin. Sowams School had 228 voters, the high school had 202 and Nayatt had 195.

The five polls open in Barrington were down from eight.  Poll workers reported a host of voters showing up at the wrong place even though every voter received a “green card” well in advance of the election with the appropriate information for voting.

Voting districts for some voters also changed this year after redistricting for Congressional and General Assembly representatives and senators.

For the first time, voters all over Rhode Island had to show identification to cast a ballot and vote by the close of the polls at 8 pm – an hour earlier than in the past. The General Assembly required IDs and shortened the voting times for elections this year.