Streaming out of the Adams Corner branch library on a crisp Tuesday afternoon, Democratic and Republican voters could agree on one thing: They would be glad when the day was over.
“I just feel like I’ve been inundated with negativity,” said Julie Ingalls, who voted for the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Deval Patrick.

Bonnie Costello, who voted for Patrick’s Republican opponent, agreed, saying former health care executive Charlie Baker and independent candidate for governor Timothy Cahill had spent the campaign slinging mud at each other. “Cahill says Baker is doing this,” she said. “Baker says Cahill is doing this. It’s like a slander campaign.”

Still, she ended up voting for Baker, she said, noting that Patrick has raised taxes over the course of his four-year term.

Costello was among the few in Dorchester and Mattapan who felt that way on Tuesday, with most voters in those heavily Democratic neighborhoods deciding to give Patrick four more years.

Patrick supporters say the victory illustrated a win of a grassroots organization against an onslaught of negative ads. Volunteers like Matt Zahler of Milton and Eva Erlich of Jamaica Plain worked to pull voters throughout the day, with the “Dot For Deval” office in Ashmont sending out teams armed with street maps and lists of Democratic voters.

The volunteers included locals like Joyce Linehan and Rosemary Powers, along with 250 others who streamed through the office during the day. “That’s all grassroots,” said Michael Christopher, a Patrick campaign aide.

For State Rep. Marty Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat, the union household vote was key. “Labor played a tremendous role,” said Walsh, who also serves as president of the Laborer’s International Union Local 223.

“Gov. Patrick deserves a second term,” he said. “He’s been stuck with a bad economy for a long time.”

Massachusetts House Minority Leader Brad Jones said on WRKO-AM that Scott Brown’s U.S. Senate victory in January helped Democrats to sweep statewide and Congressional races in a year that was largely touted as an anti-incumbent one. “I think it woke up the machine,” Jones, a North Reading Republican, said, according to State H ouse News Service.