Preliminary results confirmed by Town Clerk: Voters uphold gas-powered leaf blower phaseout; Eileen Jay reelected, Larry Freeman will serve first term
Reported by Sophie Culpepper
Preliminary results from Monday’s town election are in, per an email from Town Clerk Mary de Alderete.
Gas-powered leaf blower phaseout affirmed: Town Meeting’s vote in favor of Article 10, including a phaseout of gas-powered leaf blowers, was upheld by voters: A majority said “yes” at the polls to Question 1, though the vote of 55.02% in favor (3,351 voters) and 44.98% against (2,740 voters) was closer than Town Meeting’s original, when an overwhelming majority of 84.9% of voters were in favor. Results were close on the precinct level, with no votes outnumbering yes in precincts 5 and 7 (precincts 1-9 listed left to right):
Eileen Jay reelected, Larry Freeman elected to first term: In the contested School Committee race, new candidate Larry Freeman earned the most votes (3,957), while incumbent Eileen Jay was also reelected with a few hundred fewer votes (3,526). Salvador Jaramillo, the other new candidate, earned nearly 2,500 votes (specifically, 2,489), demonstrating his own formidable groundswell of support – but that still put him more than 1,000 votes behind the other two candidates. Both candidates will serve three-year terms.
Turnout went up from last year: Turnout more than doubled compared to last year (despite some rain this afternoon), but was still lower than in 2020. We previously reported that voter turnout is typically higher in years with a ballot question. Last year’s turnout, for an election that included a contested Planning Board race, was 12%; this year, about 27.10% of voters turned out, or 6,150 of 22,696 eligible voters. In 2020, turnout stood at 44%; that year, no townwide elections were contested – but several Town Meeting precinct races were, whereas only one of nine precincts was contested this cycle.
Turnout fluctuated slightly by precinct. It was highest in precincts 2 and 4, and lowest in precinct 3.
Other town-wide races: In the uncontested town-wide races, Joe Pato and Suzie Barry were both reelected to the Select Board for three-year terms (earning 3,871 votes and 4,224 votes respectively), as was Robert Peters to the Planning Board for a one-year term (3,864 votes), and Deborah Brown as Town Moderator for a one-year term (4,252 votes).
Town Meeting Member Precinct ResultsThe majority of candidates running and elected were incumbents; new candidates are indicated with an ‘N,’ and write-in candidates are indicated as such.
All nine precincts will have their seats filled, and elected Town Meeting Members are listed below by precinct.
In Precinct 2, the only contested precinct race, Charles Hornig, a new candidate for Town Meeting P2 who currently chairs the Planning Board, earned more than 100 fewer votes than the seven incumbents, so the precinct’s elected Town Meeting Members are as follows:
Precinct 2 (7 for 3 years)
AJAY T. JOSEPH
MATTHEW COHEN
BETSEY WEISS
MATTHEW P. DAGGETT
RITA B. GOLDBERG
RICKI PAPPO
EMILIE RINARD WEBSTER
We previously reported that in Precincts 1, 4, 8 and 9, there were one to two fewer candidates than open seats for each race. For each of these four precincts, a write-in candidate secured the missing seat(s):
Precinct 1 (7 for 3 years/ 1 for 1 year)
HONGBIN LUO
KATHERINE E. REYNOLDS
VALERIE G. OVERTON
LOIS ANGELO
LARRY D. FREEMAN
ERIC JAY MICHELSON
Stephanie Hsu – write-in
Jay Luker – write-in
Precinct 4 (7 for 3 years)
SANDRA J. SHAW
GERALD PAUL
LAWRENCE CHAN
NYLES NATHAN BARNERT
WENDY MANZ (N)
KATHRYN A. ROY (N)
Susan A. McLeish – write-in
Precinct 8 (7 for 3 years)
ALAN MAYER LEVINE
BETTY J. GAU
MARGARET S. ENDERS
VICTORIA C. BUCKLEY (N)
SUDHIR RANJAN (N)
MARGARET E. COPPE (N)
Alix Obrien Fox (write-in)
Precinct 9 (7 for 3 years / 3 for 1 year)
VICTORIA LAWRENCE BLIER
JANET M. PERRY
THOMAS O. FENN
RODNEY COLE
SCOTT FOSTER BURSON
DAVID M. SHEEHAN (N)
MICHAEL E. SCHROEDER (N)
VINEETA KUMAR (N)
MARK V. ANDERSEN (N)
Sue Kingsbury (write-in)
Precincts 3, 5, 6 and 7 were uncontested, with the number of candidates running equal to the number of open seats. Elected candidates are as follows:
Precinct 3 (7 for 3 years / 1 for 1 year)
FRANKLIN E. SMITH
GLENN P. PARKER
JEANNE K. KRIEGER
DELANOT BASTIEN
COURTNEY MCCOLLUM APGAR
CHRISTOPHER B. BUENROSTRO (N)
SALLYE F. BLEIBERG (N)
THOMAS RAMIRO DIAZ (N)
Precinct 5 (7 for 3 years)
JOHN ZHIQIANG ZHAO
M. MASHA TRABER
MELANIE A. THOMPSON
JEROLD S. MICHELSON
ANDREW JOSEPH FRIEDLICH
MARILYN M. FENOLLOSA
IRENE MARGARET DONDLEY
Precinct 6 (7 for 3 years)
DEBORAH COHEN STROD
DAWN E. MCKENNA
FREDERIC S. JOHNSON
ANDREA J. FRIBUSH
MARGARET L. COUNTS‐KLEBE
SARA G. BOTHWELL ALLEN
ERAN COHEN STROD (N)
Precinct 7 (7 for 3 years)
ROBERT D. PETERS
VIKAS KINGER
MARY CAUSEY HAMILTON
ROBERT K. CREECH
PATRICIA ELEN COSTELLO
MARY BURNELL
CHRISTIAN L. BOUTWELL
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That’s a wrap for tonight. A quick reminder that like we told you on Saturday, there will be no regular newsletter this Saturday, March 12. We’ll still be attending some important public meetings this week, but we’re going to take a week off our roundup to do some longer-term planning and big-picture thinking as Annual Town Meeting approaches (…anyway, you’re probably sick of hearing from us after this weekend’s onslaught of emails!). We’ll be back in your inboxes Saturday, March 19! And you’re as welcome as ever to share story ideas in the meantime.
On that note: Was this coverage useful to you? What do you want to see in this email in the coming weeks? Let us know, and please ask your friends to sign up and donate too! Reach out to sophie@lexobserver.org with tips and questions anytime. As always, you can also check out and share our website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. Thanks so much for reading and we’ll see you next week!
With gratitude,
Nicco Mele, Sophie Culpepper, Sarah Liu, Vivian Wang and Seiya Saneyoshi
LexObserver Team
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