It’s late June and few people are thinking about politics, even though a campaign to elect a new U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is in its final days.

A special state election will be held on Tuesday to fill the seat left vacant by John Kerry who left in January to take the job as U.S. Secretary of State.

The two candidates for this key Senate seat could not be more different.

It seems the wheels fell off the Obama Express just as the victory celebration ended. The hangover has set in and it may last four more years, if he survives the gods of politics. Suddenly, even ardent supporters are stunned as they watch their leader stumble from one crisis to the next.

The Vineyard voted in line with the rest of the commonwealth Tuesday, backing Democratic U.S. Cong. Edward Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez, a former naval special warfare lieutenant commander, in the state primary to replace Sen. John Kerry, who resigned in January to become secretary of state.

Town clerks reported relatively low turnout, around 19.5 per cent Islandwide, with slightly higher turnout in Chilmark and Tisbury, which also held town elections. The two town elections featured no contested races but several ballot questions related to spending, all of which passed.

Early morning voter turnout for the special state primary and town elections Tuesday was low, but, in at least one town, steady. Oak Bluffs town clerk Deborah Ratcliff said that, as of 10 a.m., she had seen more voters than expected at the public library.

“We’ve had somebody here every moment,” she said. Shortly after, the lone pair of voters in the ballot area left as two more walked into the polls. Still, Ms. Ratcliff said only about 40 voters had shown up to mark their ballots.

A state primary Tuesday will coincide with two annual town elections on the Vineyard.

Chilmark and Tisbury will hold their town elections on the same day as the primary in a special election to fill the seat formerly held by Sen. John Kerry.

Despite the change in dates to coincide with the senate election primary, town clerks in Chilmark and Tisbury are expecting low voter turnout.

Mr. Kerry stepped down in January to become secretary of state after serving as senator for 28 years.

Oak Bluffs voted in favor of catch-and-release shark tournaments, West Tisbury approved a new police station and Edgartown approved two spending projects during Thursday’s town elections.

Voter turnout was sparse, between nine and 13 per cent, and few races were contested.

Oak Bluffs voters approved a nonbinding referendum that would make shark tournaments in town catch and release only by a margin of 225 to 186.

Martha’s Vineyard followed the mood of the state and the country Tuesday when thousands of voters trekked to the polls to help re-elect President Barack Obama to a second term and cast ballots for Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and incumbent Cong. William Keating.

In their mock election Tuesday, Vineyard high schoolers voted overwhelmingly for President Obama.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School cafeteria served as a polling station for a mock presidential election Tuesday afternoon; 25 per cent of enrolled students cast ballots.

History teacher Andrew Vandall said his leadership class initiated the mock election where about 700 students were able to vote during lunch.

Martha’s Vineyard followed the mood of the state and the country Tuesday, when high numbers of voters turned out to the polls to help re-elect President Barack Obama to a second term and cast ballots for Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and incumbent Cong. William Keating.

The first returns from Dukes County are in: Gosnold, the seventh town in the county and smallest town in Massachusetts, narrowly voted for Barack Obama, casting 49 votes for the incumbent president and 36 votes for his challenger, Mitt Romney.

In the closely-watched U.S. Senate race, it was a nearly even split with Scott Brown beating Elizabeth Warren by a single vote, 44-43.