The preliminary results were released tonight for the Annual Town Election.
In a very high turnout by Town Election standards, voters overwhelmingly rejected the Neary School Building Project. The results for the Select Board race were initially less clear — but it looks like that race has been called.
Under the ballot question, 66% of 2,020 voters said No to allowing a proposition 2½ debt exclusion.
The votes were 681 Yes, 1,334 No, and only 5 left blank.
In the race for the Select Board, challenger Tim Fling was listed as receiving the most votes — 1,057. That was 34% of the votes cast for the two seats.
Incumbents Kathy Cook and Sam Stivers each received 32%. Cook eked out a win by just 2 votes. She received 1,009 versus the 1,007 for Stivers. (967 votes were blank or “others”.)
Notably, none of the candidates had been highlighted as winners. But in a later email from Town Clerk Jim Hegarty, I was informed that Stivers will not ask for a recount.
In the race for the 1 year School Committee seat, the only candidate on the ballot, Denise Eddy, handily won with 1,305 votes (97% of the votes cast).
Although only 1 vote was listed for Diane Romm who ran as wa write-in candidate, presumably most of the 105 “others” written in were for her. (The process for checking and counting the write-ins takes longer.)
The results were labeled “Unofficial”. That is always the case for the night of results, even when winners are identified, since they have yet to be audited. You can view them here.
As for the turnout, Town Clerk Jim Hegarty emailed that he believes it was the highest Southborough has gotten for a Town election in 20 years.
It’s 59% higher than last year when 1,267 voters participated. And that had been a high turnout for our town.
Updated (5/14/24 12:44 am): Despite an extremely close count, it appears that Sam Stivers conceded the Select Board race.
