As always after a statewide election, I like to look at how inline Southborough voters were with the rest of the state.
As everyone knows, the massive blue wave in yesterday’s election is resulting in a lot of seat/party flipping across the nation. But for deep blue Massachusetts, it just gave incumbent politicians safe wins.
Since Southborough typically runs blue, it’s not surprising that the results in town were quite close to state and district wide results.
Looking at the ballot questions, Southborough was also pretty much in step with the rest of the state there as well. (We often are outliers on a question. But not this year.)
The preliminary results showed that 4,778 Southborough voters’ ballots had been counted by last night. (I don’t know how many may still be in the mail.)
I don’t have the updated total for voters yet — but that is over 62% of the voters who were registered as of the primary earlier this fall. That was smaller than other recent midterm elections.1
Candidate Races
The analysis is based on the Town’s preliminary unofficial results (which obviously don’t include any mail-in ballots that didn’t make it in by last night) and state results reported by the Boston Globe this morning.
Results in parentheses are the state results.
- U.S. Senator
- Ed Markey, Democratic – Incumbent – 65.5% (63.4%)
- John Deaton, Republican – 30.6% (32.1%)
- Other (3rd party & write-ins) – 3.9% (2.3%)
- Governor and Lt Governor
- Maura Healey and Kimberly Driscoll, Democratic – Incumbent – 65.2% (62.7%)
- Mike Minogue & Shawn Oliver, Republican – 32.5% (33.9%)
- Other (3rd party & write-ins) – 2.3%
- Attorney General
- Andrea Joy Campbell, Democratic – Incumbent – 66.4% (65.6%)
- Mike Walsh, Republican – 31.5% (34.4%)
- Secretary of State
- Bill Galvin, Democratic – Incumbent – 71.6% (71.2%)
- Anne Brensley, Republican – 26.5% (28.8%)
- Treasurer
- Deborah B. Goldberg, Democratic – Incumbent – 64.8% (65.9%)
- Elizabeth Dionne, Republican – 32.4% (34.1%)
- Auditor
- Diana DiZoglio, Democratic – Incumbent – 75.3% (83.8%)
- Al Ozonoff, Libertarian – 15.5% (16.2%)
- Senator in General Court – Middlesex & Worcester District
- Jamie Eldridge, Democratic – Incumbent – 66.7% (71.1%)
- Tim Shea, Republican – 28.5% (28.9%)
Ballot Questions
While Southborough was in line with the overall decisions, the Town the margin of the wins was different for two of the races. There was a smaller majority in favor of public defender’s unionization rights under Q2. And there was stronger support for protecting a gun control law threatened by Q9.
Results in parentheses are the state results.
Q1: Applying public records law to the Legislature and Governor’s office
- Yes — 83.5% (86.0%)
- No — 13.7% (14.0%)
- Blanks — 2.8%
Q2: Union rights for the state’s public defenders
- Yes — 55.9% (64.2%)
- No — 40.1% (35.8%)
- Blanks — 4.1%
Q3: Replacing party primaries with a single all-party primary
- Yes — 39.7% (38.8%)
- No — 58.2% (61.2%)
- Blanks — 2.2%
Q4: Should voters be allowed to register on election day?
- Yes — 54.9% (56.6%)
- No — 43.0% (43.4%)
- Blanks — 2.3%
Q5: Making automatic tax refunds more frequent and less predictable
- Yes — 46.8% (47.7%)
- No — 49.1% (52.3%)
- Blanks — 4.2%
Q6: An earmark for conservation and recreation
- Yes — 56.3% (60.9%)
- No — 40.3% (39.1%)
- Blanks — 3.5%
Q7: Overriding local zoning to increase home construction
- Yes — 45.4% (49.6%)
- No — 51.2% (50.4%)
- Blanks — 3.6%
Q8: Rolling back marijuana legalization
- Yes — 26.5% (24.3%)
- No — 72.5% (75.7%)
- Blanks — 1.0%
Q9: Keep or repeal the 2024 gun control law
- Yes — 73.0% (67.1%)
- No — 26.2% (32.9%)
- Blanks — 0.8%
The Q8 support is worth highlighting, since our town was one of the few that had opposed recreational use legalization when it was initially on the ballot.
