GBH Daily: Your primaries primer

🌂A rainy Primary Day/Allston Christmas, with highs in the 60s. Sunset is at 7:18 p.m.

Today we have a quick guide to primary voting. Polls open at 7 a.m. and remain open until 8 p.m. We will have full results once they’re available on air at 89.7 FM, online and in this newsletter tomorrow. See something you’d like us to report on? Drop us a line at daily@wgbh.org.

Four Things to Know

1. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is making plans to demolish 13 homes around Cecilia Terrace, to make way for the new Sagamore Bridge. The homes are currently empty. Twelve of the 13 are under state ownership, and the last one is in court because of a death in the owner’s family. State officials do not yet have a date for demolition, but want to schedule a community meeting in the next four to six weeks.

“We did notice that there was some squatting going on, and some break-ins, and we were concerned about the neighbors who are remaining in the neighborhood whose homes were not taken,” said Luisa Paiewonsky, head of the Cape Cod bridges project for MassDOT. “So we’ve taken some steps recently to board up the homes, place no-trespassing signs.”

2. Advocates put 20,000 small purple flags on the Boston Common, each one representing a person who died of a drug overdose. Yesterday was Overdose Awareness Day.

Rep. Kate Donaghue of Worcester came to the Common to talk about her son Brian, who died of an overdose in 2018. He was 32. “My son had a supportive family. My late husband and I never gave up on him. He was grateful to have such a supportive family,” she said. “With all that support, he still lost his life alone, on the streets of Quincy.” She said she’s been working ever since to help others who need it.

3. A developer planning a 26-story, 502-unit apartment building in Davis Square has canceled the project, saying the city of Somerville is making it unfeasible. The developer, Copper Mill, wanted to build on the site of what is now The Burren and Dragon Pizza.

“Some people were very much against putting a tall building there and other people were very much in support of it because of the need for housing,” neighbor Chris Beland told GBH’s Esteban Bustillos. “And other people were sort of like, ‘I think we need more housing, but I don’t know if this fits the neighborhood.’”

4. Summer officially goes until the Autumnal Equinox on Sept. 22. But once the colder seasons begin, scientists from Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine will be using new ways to track snowpack. 

“Most snow measurements are collected by hand, so there’s physically a person going out into the snowpack, inserting either a ruler or a tube and measuring how much water is in that snowpack, or just how physically deep that snowpack is, and reporting it back to the people who need to make decisions,” said Prof. Elizabeth Burakoswki, a snow scientist at UNH. The new system will involve automated sensors already used in western states.

Massachusetts elections 2026: Everything you need to know to vote

‘Tis primary election day, and all through the state, voters are deciding political fates.

Here’s what you need to know:

-Check your voter registration here to find your polling location and who will be on your ballot.

-If you’ve already voted by mail, track your ballot here to make sure it’s been delivered. Ballots must be received by 8 p.m. tonight, so if you mailed your ballot too late you can drop it off at a ballot drop box in your community or vote in person today. Poll workers will only count your vote once.

-If you’re moving today and have not voted early, here’s a guide to making sure your vote still counts. 

And here’s our coverage of specific elections:

Senate: Takeaways from the debate between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton.

U.S. House: Talking to the incumbents seeking re-election across the state, and the challengers who hope voters will send them to Washington instead. Plus: the six people running in the open race on the North Shore. 

State Legislature: Just 25 incumbents have primary challengers. Among them: a race in Allston-Brighton, Belmont, Cambridge and Watertown; and a race in Lowell. 

District attorneys: A summary of the debate in Suffolk County.

Polls close at 8 p.m., and we will have results here as soon as they’re available. The general election is Nov. 3. Happy voting.