Approve Questions 6 & 7

 

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11-5-24 State election Unofficial results 2

 

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING – Bucking the nationwide victory of Republican Donald J. Trump as the next President of the United States, a majority of North Reading’s voters stood with nearly 62 percent of the Massachusetts electorate in their overwhelming support of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Locally, the current Vice President garnered 5,151 votes to former President Trump’s 4,408 votes according to the unofficial results filed by the Town Clerk’s office just after 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.

All 11 of the Electoral College votes for Massachusetts will go to Harris, according to NBC News, which named Harris the victor in the commonwealth just before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday with 61.5% of the vote (1.86M) to Trump’s 35.8% (1.08M). A total of 86% of the state’s polls had been reported by that time, with an estimated 502,000 votes remaining to be tallied.

Nationwide, however, the results were reversed, with Trump clearing the hurdle to attain the 270 electoral votes necessary to reclaim the presidency after his victory in Wisconsin, one of several key battleground states. By Wednesday morning, The AP called the race for Trump who had 277 Electoral College votes and 51% of the popular vote (71.6M) to Harris’ 224 Electoral College votes and 47.5% of the popular vote (66.7M).

The Republicans have also retaken control of the Senate.

A majority of the town’s voters also chose newcomer John Deaton over incumbent Senator Elizabeth Warren for senator in Congress, with 4,921 favoring Deaton and 4,643 voting for Warren. However, Warren still came out of top statewide to win her seat for a third six-year term by a 60% to 40% margin.

With an impressive 77% of North Reading’s voters heading to the polls, a total of 9,933 ballots were cast in town, out of a potential field of 12,861 eligible voters, through a combination of Election Day voting, 12 days of Early Voting in person and mail-in ballots.

There was plenty of interest in this election in addition to the presidential race including the down ballot races and seven ballot questions — five statewide questions and two local debt exclusion override decisions.

QUESTIONS 6 and 7

Locally, taxpayers favored giving themselves a temporary tax increase to pay for the Chestnut Street Bridge at an estimated $4.5 million and a new ladder truck for the Fire Department at an estimated $1.2 million, both through debt exclusion overrides after their passage at October Town Meeting.

The bridge passed by a margin of a mere 35 votes — with 4,544 voting in favor and 4,509 voting against it. There were also a total of 880 blanks cast for Question 6 so the tables could very easily have been turned.

Question 7 passed with a much larger margin of victory by 800 votes with 4,946 voting in favor of it and 4,146 voting against it. There were also 841 blanks cast. It takes a minimum of two years to design and order ladder trucks as they are custom built and the town’s current ladder truck is aging out of the fleet.

OTHER RACES

In the two remaining contested races, Republican incumbent Ann Manning-Martin won her three-way race for Councillor locally with 4,095 votes while Democratic challenger Eunice Delice Zeigler took 3,285 votes and Independent challenger Jody A. Elliott got 882.

In the race for Register of Deeds in the Middlesex Southern District, incumbent Democrat Maria C. Curtatone (4,790) won over Independent challenger William “Billy” Tauro (3,189). The results of their statewide races had not been posted as of press time.

In the uncontested races, incumbent state Senator Bruce Tarr (R) of Gloucester, the Senate Minority Leader (7,229); incumbent state Rep. Bradley H. Jones Jr. (R) of North Reading, the House Minority Leader (7,353); incumbent Clerk of Courts Michael A. Sullivan (D) of Cambridge; and North Reading’s Regional School Committee member for Northeast Metro Tech, incumbent Judith M. Dyment (5,960) all retain their seats. Each of the 12 sending communities has a member on the Regional School Committee; 10 seats were uncontested and two seats were vacant in this election. Voters in all 12 communities are eligible to vote for the candidates in each community.

OTHER BALLOT QUESTIONS

The results of two of the five statewide ballot questions were known at press time; and the majority of North Reading’s voters agreed with the majority statewide in approving Question 1 to give the State Auditor the authority to audit the state legislature (6,461 to 2,555) and overwhelmingly rejected Question 5 which sought to increase the state’s minimum waged for tipped workers from the current $6.75/hour to $15/per hour over a five-year span. This question failed locally 7,083 to 2,479. Currently, if a tipped worker does not make enough in tips to reach $15/hour the employer makes up the difference; most tipped workers earn far more than $15.

Locally, voters favored Question 2 (eliminate MCAS as a graduation requirement); rejected Question 3 (allowing rideshare drivers to unionize) and rejected Question 4 (legalizing psychedelic mushrooms).

Charts provided by Town Clerk Susan Duplin detailing the breakdown of the town’s vote by precinct are published elsewhere in today’s Transcript.