SWAMPSCOTT. Swampscott voters cast 7,191 ballots in the November 3 state election, a 60.8 percent turnout by the town clerk’s count, and gave every Democrat on the ballot all six precincts. Senator Edward J. Markey took 4,877 votes, 68 percent of ballots cast, and the ticket of Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll took 4,857, 68 percent. The town rejected Question 5, the state revenue limit, in every precinct and passed Question 7, the single-family-homes question, by 137 votes, with the two southern precincts voting no. The figures below come from the three-page unofficial results sheet posted on the town website and are unofficial until certified. Five of the sheet’s printed totals are wrong, as explained below; where they are, this report uses the sum of the six precinct figures.
Turnout
Precinct 4 cast the most ballots, 1,276, followed by Precinct 5 with 1,272, Precinct 6 with 1,232, Precinct 3 with 1,182, Precinct 1 with 1,129 and Precinct 2 with 1,100. The sheet gives the town’s turnout as 60.8 percent in its footer but does not print the number of registered voters by precinct. Beverly turned out 62 percent the same night, Salem 50 percent, Saugus 49 percent, Lynn 34 percent and Malden 30 percent.
Senate: Markey by 2,945
Markey beat John Deaton 4,877 to 1,932, with 220 votes for Shiva Ayyadurai, 207 for Joe Tache, 18 write-ins and 129 blanks. He won every precinct, his widest margin in Precinct 3 (910 to 214) and his narrowest in Precinct 2 (685 to 359). Deaton’s highest total came in Precinct 5, 368 to Markey’s 825, and his best share in Precinct 2, where he drew about a third of the two-candidate vote.
Governor and the rest of the state ticket
Healey and Driscoll received 4,857 votes. The sheet prints 4,857 for the Minogue and Oliver ticket as well, an impossibility on 7,191 ballots; the six precinct figures for the Republican ticket, 342, 401, 240, 363, 396 and 365, add to 2,107. The James and Kittredge ticket drew 263 votes, with 7 write-ins and 72 blanks. Healey won every precinct, by 903 to 240 in Precinct 3 and 668 to 401 in Precinct 2, the closest.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell received 4,902 votes to Michael C. Walsh’s 2,074 by precinct sum; the sheet prints 3,804 for Walsh. Secretary of State William Francis Galvin received 5,292 to Anne R. Brensley’s 1,660 by precinct sum; the sheet prints 3,040 for Brensley. Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg received 4,936 to Elizabeth Dionne’s 1,968 by precinct sum; the sheet prints 3,602 for Dionne. Auditor Diana DiZoglio received 5,543 to Al Ozonoff’s 899 by precinct sum; the sheet prints 1,642 for Ozonoff. In each case the winner’s printed total matches the precinct figures and the second-place total does not, and in each case the six precinct figures together with the write-in and blank counts add to the 7,191 ballots the sheet reports for every race. The auditor’s race drew 720 blanks, the most of any statewide contest.
Congress and the Legislature
In the Sixth Congressional District, Dan Koh beat Micah Quinney Jones 4,796 to 2,104 in Swampscott, with 23 write-ins and 268 blanks, carrying every precinct; Jones’s best precinct was 5, where he drew 397 votes to Koh’s 823. Koh also won Beverly 12,598 to 5,806 and Saugus 5,594 to 5,055.
The rest of the ballot was uncontested. Governor’s Councillor Terrence W. Kennedy, Sixth District, received 5,077 votes with 1,990 blanks. State Senator Brendan Peter Crighton, Third Essex District, received 5,168 with 1,899 blanks and 124 write-ins. Representative Jennifer WB Armini, Eighth Essex District, received 5,123 with 1,941 blanks. District Attorney Paul F. Tucker received 5,164 and Register of Probate Pamela Casey O’Brien 5,022, with 2,073 voters leaving the register’s line blank, the most of any race. In each uncontested race, between 26 and 29 percent of voters left the line blank.
The ballot questions
Swampscott voted on the nine statewide questions and a tenth question that the sheet tallies without giving its text. 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 6,072 to 905, 87 percent yes, winning every precinct. Question 2, collective bargaining rights for Committee for Public Counsel Services staff, passed 4,538 to 2,354, 66 percent. Question 3, replacing party primaries with a single primary, failed 2,848 to 4,134 and lost every precinct; its best was Precinct 6, 510 to 673. Question 4, election day voter registration, passed 4,236 to 2,745, 61 percent, and won every precinct, Precinct 2 most narrowly at 576 to 488.
Question 5, which changes the state revenue limit and the taxpayer rebate, failed 2,948 to 3,894, 43 percent yes, and lost every precinct: 463 to 604 in Precinct 1, 482 to 570 in Precinct 2, 415 to 720 in Precinct 3, 523 to 695 in Precinct 4, 556 to 657 in Precinct 5 and 509 to 648 in Precinct 6. Beverly, Malden, Salem and Melrose also rejected it; Saugus, Lynn and Winthrop approved it. Question 6, a natural resource conservation fund, passed 4,307 to 2,567, 63 percent, winning every precinct.
Question 7, on single-family homes, passed 3,519 to 3,382, 51 percent yes, the closest question in town. It won Precinct 1 (585 to 497), Precinct 2 by three votes (530 to 527), Precinct 3 (622 to 524) and Precinct 4 (638 to 588), and lost Precinct 5 (599 to 620) and Precinct 6 (545 to 626). Beverly passed the same question 52.5 to 47.5 with a similar split between its downtown and outer precincts; Malden passed it 65 to 35; Saugus rejected it; Winthrop decided it by a single vote.
Question 8, which would have banned the retail sale of adult recreational marijuana, failed 1,600 to 5,526, 22 percent yes, and lost every precinct by more than two and a half to one. Question 9 kept the 2024 firearms law, 5,571 to 1,538, 78 percent yes, the second-strongest result of the night after Question 1, winning every precinct. Question 10 passed 3,563 to 2,615 with 1,069 blanks, the most blanks of any question; the sheet does not say what it asked. The sheet records 7,191 ballots on Questions 1 through 7 and 7,247 on Questions 8 through 10, a 56-ballot difference it does not explain.
What the map says
Precinct 2 was the most Republican precinct in town by share, the best for Deaton, Minogue, Walsh and Brensley relative to its size, the narrowest on Questions 4 and 7 and the only precinct where Question 7 passed by single digits. Precinct 3 was the strongest Democratic precinct, giving Markey 910 to 214 and Healey 903 to 240. The two southern precincts, 5 and 6, were the only ones to vote no on single-family homes, while giving Democrats margins as large as anywhere else in town. Townwide, voters said yes to open records, same-day registration, the conservation fund and the firearms law, no to a single primary, the revenue cap and a marijuana ban, and yes, narrowly, on single-family homes.
The Select Board meets Tuesday, November 10. The clerk’s unofficial results sheet is here. Earlier results coverage: Beverly, Malden, Saugus, Lynn, Salem and Winthrop.
