BEVERLY. Beverly voters cast 19,180 ballots in the November 3 state election, 62 percent of the city’s 30,771 registered voters, the highest turnout rate among the six North Shore communities whose precinct results this site has reported so far. Every Democrat on the ballot carried all 12 precincts. Senator Edward J. Markey took 12,626 votes, 66 percent of all ballots cast, and the ticket of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll took 12,474, 65 percent. The city rejected Question 5, the state revenue limit, in every precinct, and split along a line through Ward 4 on Question 7, the single-family-homes question, which passed citywide by 915 votes. The figures below come from the city clerk’s four-page unofficial results sheet and are unofficial until certified.
Turnout: 73 percent in Precinct 4-1, 45 percent in 3-1
Beverly’s turnout table, printed on the last page of the sheet, shows 11 of 12 precincts above 50 percent. Precinct 4-1, the city’s smallest with 1,193 registered voters, led at 73 percent (865 ballots), followed by Precincts 4-2 and 6-2 at 72 percent (2,093 of 2,887 and 2,009 of 2,796). Precinct 6-1 was at 67 percent, 1-2 at 65, 5-2 at 63, 2-2 at 62, and 1-1 and 5-1 at 61. The lowest rates were in Ward 3, where Precinct 3-1 turned out 45 percent (993 of 2,199) and Precinct 3-2 56 percent (1,532 of 2,745), and in Precinct 2-1 at 53 percent (1,566 of 2,949). Precinct 4-2 produced the most ballots, 2,093, and Precinct 4-1 the fewest, 865. Precinct 2-1 has the largest voter roll, 2,949.
By comparison, Malden turned out 30 percent of its voters the same night, Lynn 34 percent, Saugus 49 percent, Salem 50 percent and Swampscott 61 percent.
Senate: Markey by 7,358
Markey beat John Deaton 12,626 to 5,268, with 442 votes for Shiva Ayyadurai, 357 for Joe Tache, 52 write-ins and 435 blanks. Markey won every precinct. His widest margins were in Precinct 4-2 (1,502 to 442) and Precinct 2-2 (1,143 to 321). Deaton’s best precinct was 6-2, where he drew 714 votes to Markey’s 1,179, his highest total and his best share in the city; Precinct 4-1 was the closest in raw votes, 576 to 243, because it is the smallest.
Governor and the rest of the state ticket
Healey and Driscoll beat Mike Minogue and Kate Oliver 12,474 to 5,887, with 504 votes for the James and Kittredge ticket, 20 write-ins and 295 blanks. The Republican ticket ran about 600 votes ahead of Deaton citywide and did best in Precinct 6-2, 810 to Healey’s 1,129, its only precinct above 800 votes. Healey’s best precinct was 4-2, 1,519 to 482.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell beat Michael C. Walsh 12,819 to 5,707, with 631 blanks; Walsh’s best precinct was 6-2, 767 to 1,168. Secretary of State William Francis Galvin beat Anne R. Brensley 13,853 to 4,609, the largest raw vote of any contested candidate on the Beverly ballot. Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg beat Elizabeth Dionne 12,683 to 5,624, with 851 blanks. Auditor Diana DiZoglio beat Al Ozonoff 14,747 to 2,393, 86 percent of the two-candidate vote and the widest margin on the ballot, though 1,951 voters left the auditor’s line blank and 89 wrote in a name, both the highest of any contested race.
Congress: Koh by 6,792
In the Sixth Congressional District, Dan Koh beat Micah Quinney Jones 12,598 to 5,806 in Beverly, with 47 write-ins and 729 blanks. Koh carried every precinct, his widest margin in 4-2 (1,526 to 489) and his narrowest in 4-1 (563 to 267). Jones’s best precinct was 6-2, 772 to 1,148, the same precinct that gave Deaton, Minogue and Walsh their best totals. Koh also won Saugus, 5,594 to 5,055, and Swampscott, 4,796 to 2,104.
In the race for the Governor’s Council Fifth District seat, Eunice Delice Zeigler beat William Falcetano 12,307 to 5,283, carrying every precinct, with 1,565 blanks.
The Legislature and the county: no contests
State Senator Joan B. Lovely, unopposed in the Second Essex District, received 14,604 votes; 4,240 voters left the line blank and 336 wrote in a name. Representative Hannah Louise Bowen, unopposed in the Sixth Essex District, received 14,320 with 4,524 blanks and 336 write-ins. District Attorney Paul F. Tucker, unopposed in the Eastern District, received 14,460 with 4,449 blanks, and Register of Probate Pamela Casey O’Brien, unopposed, 14,175 with 4,735 blanks. In each of the four uncontested races, between 22 and 25 percent of voters left the line blank.
The ballot questions
Beverly had nine questions, all binding. Questions 1 through 8 were laws proposed by initiative petition and Question 9 was a referendum on the 2024 firearms law, on which a yes vote kept the law.
Question 1, extending the public records law to the Legislature and the governor’s office, passed 16,204 to 2,356, 87 percent yes, the strongest result of the night and a yes in every precinct. Question 2, collective bargaining rights for Committee for Public Counsel Services staff, passed 12,042 to 6,274, 66 percent. Question 3, replacing party primaries with a single primary, failed 7,163 to 11,424 and lost all 12 precincts; its best showing was 744 to 1,085 in Precinct 1-2. Question 4, election day voter registration, passed 10,959 to 7,576, 59 percent, and carried every precinct; it failed in Saugus.
Question 5, which changes the state revenue limit and the taxpayer rebate, failed 8,170 to 10,049, 45 percent yes, and lost every precinct. Its closest precinct was 6-2, 943 to 958, a 15-vote margin; its worst was 2-2, 585 to 927. Malden, Salem and Melrose also rejected it; Saugus, Lynn and Winthrop approved it. Question 6, a natural resource conservation fund, passed 11,900 to 6,400, 65 percent, and won every precinct.
Question 7, on single-family homes, was the closest question in the city and the only one to divide the precincts. It passed 9,615 to 8,700, 52.5 percent yes, winning Precincts 1-1 (806 to 761), 1-2 (908 to 906, a two-vote margin), 2-1 (916 to 577), 2-2 (893 to 619), 3-1 (591 to 346), 3-2 (824 to 649) and 4-2 (1,117 to 875), and losing Precincts 4-1 (408 to 429), 5-1 (752 to 773), 5-2 (704 to 788), 6-1 (845 to 912) and 6-2 (851 to 1,065). The downtown and Ward 2 and 3 precincts carried it; the Wards 5 and 6 precincts and Precinct 4-1 voted no. Malden approved the same question 65 to 35 and Saugus rejected it.
Question 8, which would have banned the retail sale of adult recreational marijuana, failed 4,069 to 14,833, 21 percent yes, and lost every precinct by more than three to one; its best was 479 to 1,506 in Precinct 6-2. Question 9 kept the 2024 firearms law, 14,169 to 4,723, 75 percent yes, winning every precinct; the narrowest was 6-2, 1,420 to 571.
What the map says
Precinct 6-2, with 2,009 ballots, was the most Republican precinct in Beverly by every measure: best for Deaton, Minogue, Walsh, Dionne, Ozonoff and Jones, closest on Question 5 and most opposed to Question 7. Precinct 4-2 was the mirror image, the largest Democratic margins in the city for Markey, Healey, Campbell, Galvin, Goldberg, DiZoglio and Koh. Even so, no Republican or no-party candidate won a single precinct. The city said yes to open records, same-day registration, the conservation fund and the firearms law, said no to a single primary, the revenue cap and a marijuana ban, and divided over single-family homes along a line between the downtown and Ward 2 and 3 precincts and the Wards 5 and 6 neighborhoods.
The Beverly City Council meets Monday, November 9 with a public hearing on a data center moratorium on the agenda. The clerk’s unofficial results sheet is here. Earlier results coverage: Malden, Saugus, Lynn, Salem and Winthrop.
