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Obama won 10 of 11 precincts in town, losing only by a slight margin in Precinct 9 which includes voters from Indian Cliffs, Winter Valley, Hillside and Highland streets.
Nearly the same number of voters in town turned out in 1988 when George Walker Bush ran against Michael Dukakis, but the last two elections saw that number dip under 15,000 voters.
Precinct 3 – which covers most of Canton Avenue, Whitelawn Avenue, Columbine Road, Capen, Eliot and School streets – turned out the highest percentage of votes at 87.5 percent.
The town supported incumbent Sen. John Kerry over Republic rival Jeff Beatty, by a 9912 to 4669 margin.
Congressman Stephen Lynch and State Sen. Brian Joyce won their re-election bids without a contest. Rep. Walter Timilty (running in Precincts 2 and 4-10), Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry (Precincts 1 and 3) and Rep. Angelo Scaccia (Precinct 11) also were uncontested. Festus Joyce, the local representative to the regional school committee, was also uncontested.
Overall, Mullen reported a few malfunctions with the electronic voting equipment, but said the problems were soon fixed. A final tally will be complete within the next day.
“There were a few more problems than I would have liked,” he said. “But nothing we couldn’t handle.”
At the state level, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. He won 62 percent of the vote to McCain’s 36 percent, and took the state’s 12 electoral votes.
Obama won 52 percent of the national vote, around 62.5 million votes in all, to become the 44th president. McCain earned 46 percent of the nation’s support, just around 55.4 million votes.
President-elect Obama will be
sworn in to office Jan. 20, with Sen. Joe Biden sworn in to serve as vice president.
The Ballot Questions
The town overwhelmingly (10,614 to 4369) rejected referendum Question 1, which would have repealed the state income tax by 2010. The measure did not pass the state ballot.
The town voted 9,389 to 5,545 in favor of Question 2 to decriminalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. State voters also passed the measure.
Town voters rejected Question 3 to ban dog racing in the state.
However, the ban won the majority of state votes and will take effect in January, 2010.