SAUGUS. Saugus voters cast 11,307 ballots in the November 3 state election, 49 percent of the town’s 23,016 registered voters, and split their ticket: the Republican ticket of Minogue and Oliver carried the town for governor by 212 votes while Democrats Edward J. Markey, Andrea Joy Campbell, William Francis Galvin, Deborah B. Goldberg and Dan Koh all won here. The town also approved Question 5, the state revenue limit, which Melrose rejected the same night. The figures below are the unofficial precinct-by-precinct results posted by Town Clerk Ellen Schena, covering all 10 precincts; they are unofficial until certified.
Turnout
Precinct 5 produced the most ballots, 1,235, and Precinct 10 the fewest, 969. Precinct 1 has the largest voter roll, 2,437, and Precinct 10 the smallest, 2,124. Turnout ran from 46 percent in Precinct 10 (969 of 2,124 registered) to 52 percent in Precinct 7 (1,207 of 2,319). The clerk’s sheet shows 11,333 ballots on Questions 8 and 9 against 11,307 on every other line, a 26-ballot difference the sheet does not explain.
Governor
Minogue and Oliver received 5,541 votes to 5,329 for Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, with 289 for James and Kittredge, 15 write-ins and 133 blanks. The Republican ticket won five of the 10 precincts: Precinct 3 by seven votes (527 to 520), Precinct 5 by 161 (676 to 515), Precinct 7 by 162 (666 to 504), Precinct 9 by 80 (629 to 549), and Precinct 10 by 21 (480 to 459). Healey carried Precincts 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8, Precinct 4 by only 10 votes (552 to 542), and her best was Precinct 2, 556 to 456.
Senate and the rest of the state ticket
Markey won Saugus 5,689 to 4,954 for John Deaton, 50 percent of the ballots cast, with 231 votes for Shiva Ayyadurai, 174 for Joe Tache, 13 write-ins and 246 blanks. Deaton carried Precincts 5 (619 to 544), 7 (604 to 536) and 9 (573 to 572, a one-vote margin). Markey’s best precinct was 1, 632 to 441.
Attorney General Campbell had the closest statewide result in town, 5,502 to 5,432 for Michael C. Walsh, a 70-vote margin, with 365 blanks. Walsh won Precincts 5, 7 and 9. Galvin beat Anne R. Brensley 6,583 to 4,299 for secretary of state and carried every precinct. Goldberg beat Elizabeth Dionne 5,784 to 4,944 for treasurer, losing Precincts 5 and 7. Auditor Diana DiZoglio beat Al Ozonoff 7,594 to 1,830, the widest margin on the ballot, though 1,817 voters left that race blank, the most of any statewide race.
Congress and the Legislature
In the Sixth Congressional District, Dan Koh beat Micah Quinney Jones 5,594 to 5,055 in Saugus, with 643 blanks. Jones carried Precincts 5 (603 to 561), 7 (606 to 533) and 9 (590 to 555), the same three precincts that went to Deaton and to the Minogue ticket. Koh’s best precinct was 2, 586 to 412.
Saugus is divided between two House districts. In the Ninth Essex District, which covers Precincts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, Representative Donald H. Wong of Saugus was re-elected over Peter Meaney, 5,370 to 3,473, winning every one of the eight precincts, his widest margin in Precinct 5 (770 to 413) and his narrowest in Precinct 2 (570 to 450). In the Sixteenth Suffolk District, Precincts 3 and 10, Representative Jessica Ann Giannino of Revere was unopposed and received 1,311 votes with 46 write-ins and 710 blanks.
State Senator Brendan Peter Crighton, unopposed in the Third Essex District, received 6,771 votes; 4,335 voters left the line blank and 201 wrote in a name. Governor’s Councillor Terrence W. Kennedy, unopposed in the Sixth District, had 6,971. District Attorney Paul F. Tucker, unopposed, had 6,770, and Register of Probate Pamela Casey O’Brien 6,927.
The one contested local race was the Malden vacancy on the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School Committee, which Saugus voters help fill. James Bancroft Perry beat Sean M. Salazar 4,219 to 2,443, with 98 write-ins and 4,547 blanks, more blanks than votes for the winner.
The ballot questions
Saugus 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 9,182 to 1,678, 85 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 6,307 to 4,349. Question 3, replacing party primaries with a single primary, failed 4,313 to 6,542 and lost every precinct. Question 4, election day voter registration, failed narrowly, 5,065 to 5,737; it passed only in Precinct 1, 554 to 521.
Question 5, which changes the state revenue limit and the taxpayer rebate, passed in Saugus 5,958 to 4,625, 56 percent yes, carrying all 10 precincts; Melrose voters, whose mayor had campaigned against it as a threat to local aid, rejected it by about 3,000 votes the same night. Question 6, a natural resource conservation fund, passed 5,791 to 4,851. Question 7, on single-family homes, failed 4,978 to 5,725 and did not pass in any precinct; the closest was Precinct 1, 518 to 543.
Question 8, which would have banned the retail sale of adult recreational marijuana, failed 3,434 to 7,671, 31 percent yes, and lost every precinct by a wide margin. Question 9 kept the 2024 firearms law, 6,625 to 4,418, with yes winning every precinct; the narrowest was Precinct 7, 645 to 532.
What the map says
Three precincts, 5, 7 and 9, voted for Deaton, the Minogue ticket, Walsh and Jones, and gave Question 5 its biggest margins. Precinct 2 was the mirror image, the best precinct in town for Healey, Campbell and Koh, while Precinct 1 was Markey’s best and the only one to approve election day registration. The town as a whole gave Democrats every statewide office but governor, kept its Republican state representative by 21 points, and said no to banning marijuana sales, to a single primary, to same-day registration and to the single-family-homes question.
The clerk’s unofficial results spreadsheet is here.
