Town vote backs Gabrieli in primary
Published on September 20th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - A slim majority of the Stoneham electorate declared Chris Gabrielli as their choice for the Mass. Democratic Party's gubernatorial candidate.
Claiming 1,369 votes, compared to Deval Patrick's tally of 1,217, Gabrielli carried victory in Stoneham, but ultimately fell to the former corporate lawyer by a wide margin in statewide counts. Attorney General Thomas Reilly finished third in the local polls, with 1,048 people backing his candidacy.
According to Town Clerk John Hanright, who was surprised by just how close the vote tally was for the governor's race, nearly 30 percent of Stoneham's registered voters traveled to the voting booth for this Tuesday's state primary election.
"It's amazing that there's only a [152-vote] difference in a gubernatorial election," said Hanright, referring to Gabrielli's somewhat narrow victory in the town polls.
While Stoneham's thoughts on which Democrat should face Lt. Governor Kerry Healey in November's general election didn't match-up with the state's larger electorate, a majority of the town's voting population agreed on who should be the ticket's Lt. Governor.
Worcester Mayor Timothy Murray captured 1,403 votes in Stoneham, compared to runner-up Deborah Goldberg's following of 1,200. Andrea C. Silbert finished third locally with 725 ballots cast in her favor.
With virtually every Republican candidate in the primary race running unopposed, Stoneham did cast 165 votes of support behind Kevin Scott for U.S. Senator. Kenneth Chase, earning 96 votes, finished second in the local polls.
In total, 3,947 votes were cast by Stonehamites in the various races. And although that number fell short of the 4,018 ballots filled-out in the 2002 primary, the Town Clerk considered yesterday's turnout to be somewhat surprising, given election officials' predictions that only 20 percent of the populace would participate.
"Even though we had a lot of new election workers, without them the whole process would be extremely difficult," the Town Clerk said, giving a plug to the array of volunteers who assisted in running the election on the town level.
"We're not going to do the 2002 primary total, but that's kind of respectable I suppose," added Hanright, who had hoped for a larger turnout, but was ultimately satisfied with the participation rate.
While the Town Clerk eventually labeled the election as well attended, given the fact that the turnout surpassed state estimates by over ten-percent, he was disappointed at the initial numbers earlier in the day.
As of 2 p.m. on Tuesday, only 1,700 Stonehamites had come to the polls, a dismally low turnout given the totals in the 2002 primary. However, by 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, over 2,600 residents had cast a vote, and that number would climb to 3,140 an hour later.
"Does it surprise me? Well, [the Secretary of State] is predicting a 20-percent turnout and we're not even close," said Hanright in the early afternoon hours last Tuesday. "It surprises me when you have three people running for governor and it doesn't pull out more people."
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