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Boston Herald – With just hours to go before the polls close at 8 p.m. tonight, turnout was brisk at the polls as voters streamed into schools, senior centers and other government buildings after work to cast a ballot in the heated, seven-way scrum for at-large city council.

More than 50,000 of the city’s 347,000 registered voters had voted by 6 p.m., eclipsing the 46,000 who voted in the 2007 council election.

Turnout was especially high in Dorchester, where former city printer Frank Baker and realtor/community activist John O’Toole were locked in a tight race for the district seat being vacated by Councilor Maureen Feeney.

Results are expected to start coming in shortly after polls close at 8 p.m.

A steady flow of voters also streamed to the polls in Chinatown, where a fierce race has pitted incumbent Bill Linehan against former school principal Suzanne Lee.

Turnout was heaviest in District 2 and District 5, which encompasses Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan. In 2007, the last time a similar election was held, in which the seats up for grabs were on the City Council, turnout was a record-low 13.6 percent of registered voters.

The District 2 seat, representing Chinatown, South Boston and the South End, has traditionally been held by South Boston and Linehan volunteers were out in force, with campaign signs and Chinese-language literature to engineer a come-from-behind win.

Johnny Ching, 34, a lifelong resident of Chinatown, said he had met Linehan, a councilor since 2007, and was a supporter.

“He’s the family man, and that’s important,” Ching said. “I have a young daughter now too.”

Lee, who served as principal of the local Josiah Quincy school, beat Linehan by 4 percent in the November primary. Community organizer Mabel Tso, who was conducting exit polls on Oak Street, said she had seen a lot of support for the newcomer.

“She’s contributed a lot to society,” retired restaurant cook Fu Li Ren, 75, said through a translator. “She’s served the community a long time.”

“She seems to have a sense of justice and wants to help more people,” Baoyi Huang, 55, said through a translator.

The at-large council race has intensified in recent weeks as incumbents formed alliances and jockeyed for position, wary of the deep political base Michael Flaherty has built. Flaherty, meanwhile, focused only on his own campaign and even sent out a mailer to Southie residents this week shaped like a bullet. The mailer was designed to encourage Southie voters to vote only for him, and no other councilors - a tactic known as “bullet” voting.

By David Wedge and Natalie Sherman

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