Above: In the Select Board race results, Pfaff is in and Stivers is making a return. (image left cropped from contributed photo, right by Beth Melo)
In Tuesday’s election, Southborough voters approved all four ballot questions for debt exemptions. They also voted to make a change on the Select Board.
Last year, Sam Stivers was disappointed to get the fewest votes (by one) in the three way race for two Select Board seats. Tonight, he regained his place on the board and it’s incumbent Marguerite Landry who who is losing her seat.*
Stivers will be joined by newcomer Andrew Pfaff, who got the biggest share of the votes.
69% of voters cast ballots for Pfaff, 54% for Stivers, and only 50% for Landry. (There were also 265 “blank” votes, meaning that at least 13% of voters didn’t vote for two candidates.)
For the uncontested seats on the ballot, Town Clerk Jim Hegarty was again the top vote getter. You can see the full “unofficial results” here.
For the ballot questions, the first three debt exemptions were approved by 76% of voters. (Those were for the Neary and Trottier roofs, and the $25M for roads.) The fourth, for sidewalk projects, received 67% support.
For a refresher on the candidates and ballot questions, click here.
Only 1,001 voters participated in this year’s election. That’s only 13% of registered Southborough voters. While not untypical for a Town election, it seems fairly given what was at stake.
It’s less than half those who voted last year. But last year’s election with the New Neary Project on the ballot was by far the highest turnout in many years.
This year’s turnout was also over 20% fewer voters than in 2024. Still that election had a higher than usual turnout for a standard election year. (I’m not sure why. But in addition to a Select Board race there was a write-in campaign for the Planning Board.)
This year’s turnout is only 6% lower than the 2023 election which had three political races. But that election didn’t have any ballot questions.
*Updated (5/13/26 9:31 am): Worth noting — Landry will continue to serve the Town through two other government positions. She is currently the Chair of the Library Board of Trustees and a member of the Southborough Public Accessibility Committee.
