Melrose voters cast 14,122 ballots in the November 3 state election, about 65 percent of the city’s 21,880 registered voters, and rejected the revenue-cap Question 5, the marijuana sales ban in Question 8 and the proposal to replace party primaries in Question 3, according to the unofficial, preliminary results the city clerk posted on election night. All 14 precincts reported. The clerk’s election summary report was run at 9:02 p.m.
The results are unofficial until the clerk certifies them. They cover every contest on the Melrose ballot, from United States senator to a regional school committee vacancy, and all 10 ballot questions, nine of them binding and one, Question 10, a non-binding question on legislative stipends.
Statewide offices
Senator Edward J. Markey took 9,924 votes in Melrose, 71.78 percent of the votes cast in that race, to 3,407 for John Deaton, 255 for Shiva Ayyadurai and 239 for Joe Tache, with 31 write-ins and 297 blanks. Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll won 9,900 votes, 71.09 percent, to 3,703 for the Minogue and Oliver ticket and 323 for James and Kittredge. Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell received 9,954 votes to 3,704 for Michael J. Walsh; Secretary of State William Francis Galvin 10,777 to 2,836 for Anne R. Brensley; Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg 9,730 to 3,644 for Elizabeth Dionne; and Auditor Diana DiZoglio 11,094 to 1,482 for Al Ozonoff, the widest margin on the ballot at 88 percent, though 1,546 voters left that race blank.
Congress, the Legislature and the courts
Representative Katherine M. Clark, unopposed in the Fifth Congressional District, received 10,446 votes with 431 write-ins and 3,676 blanks. Governor’s Councillor Terrence W. Kennedy, also unopposed in the Sixth District, had 10,086. In the Fifth Middlesex Senate district, Senator Kate Lipper-Garabedian of Melrose ran unopposed and received 10,594 votes, with 241 write-ins and 3,528 blanks. The city’s new state representative in the 32nd Middlesex district, Leila Bhatti Migliorelli, also unopposed, received 10,289 votes with 221 write-ins and 3,833 blanks. District Attorney Marian T. Ryan had 10,251 votes, and Register of Probate Tara E. DeCristofaro beat Tara Martorella 9,811 to 1,401.
The one contested local race was for the Malden vacancy on the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School Committee, which Melrose voters help fill. James Bancroft Perry won the city 4,307 to 3,376 over Sean M. Salazar, 56 to 44 percent, with 104 write-ins; 6,439 Melrose voters, nearly half, skipped the race.
The ballot questions
Melrose approved six of the nine binding questions and the non-binding tenth. Question 1, extending the public records law to the Legislature and the governor’s office, passed 12,175 to 1,580, or 88.5 percent, the strongest yes of the night. Question 2, collective bargaining rights for Committee for Public Counsel Services staff, passed 9,615 to 3,980. Question 3, which would replace party primaries with a single primary, failed 4,950 to 8,842, 36 to 64 percent. Question 4, election day voter registration, passed 8,909 to 4,851. Question 5, which would change the state revenue limit and the rebate that follows from it, failed 5,266 to 8,273, 39 to 61 percent. Question 6, a natural resource conservation fund, passed 7,946 to 5,630. Question 7, on single-family homes on small lots, passed 7,653 to 5,973. Question 8, which would have prohibited the retail sale of adult-use marijuana, failed 2,932 to 11,040, 21 to 79 percent. Question 9, the referendum on the 2024 firearms law, in which a yes vote keeps the law, passed 11,151 to 2,812, nearly 80 percent. Question 10, the non-binding question on legislative stipend reform, drew 9,312 yes votes to 2,194 no, with 2,677 blanks.
What the city had asked for
The Melrose result on three of those questions matches what Mayor Jen Grigoraitis asked the City Council to advocate at its October 19 meeting. She said Question 5 “would result in far less state money available to support our local budget” and would shift the burden of school and city services to local taxpayers starting in fiscal 2028; the School Committee had voted unanimously to oppose it the week before. Melrose voters rejected it by 3,007 votes. She said Question 8 would “directly and severely impact Garden Remedies,” the city’s cannabis operator, and the excise revenue that the council has used to support the school budget in each of the last two years; the city rejected the ban by more than 8,000 votes. And she asked for a yes on Question 9 to keep the 2024 gun law, which lets the city bar civilian carrying in City Hall and other municipal buildings; Melrose said yes by 8,339 votes.
What each question asked
The clerk’s posting labels the questions the way the ballot did. Questions 1 through 8 were laws proposed by initiative petition: expanding the public records law, collective bargaining for Committee for Public Counsel Services employees, state primary elections, election day registration, the state revenue limit and rebate, a natural resource conservation fund, single-family homes, and a prohibition on the retail sale of adult recreational-use marijuana. Question 9 was a referendum on an existing law, the firearms regulation enacted in 2024, so a yes vote kept the law and a no vote would have repealed it. Question 10, legislative stipend reform, was marked on the ballot as not binding. The clerk’s summary covers the contested races, and the eight-page election summary report breaks every contest down with vote shares, write-ins and blanks; the two documents agree to the vote.
Turnout and what comes next
The 64.54 percent turnout compares with a city that has 21,880 registered voters across 14 precincts. The number of blanks varied widely by race: 196 voters skipped the governor’s race, but 3,676 skipped the uncontested congressional race and 2,910 the register of probate. The clerk’s full report, with each contest broken out, is posted as a PDF alongside the summary; the city also posted the specimen ballot. Official results follow certification by the city clerk, and statewide outcomes are certified by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, which is why this report confines itself to how Melrose voted rather than who won statewide.
The Melrose unofficial results are here and the full election summary report is here.
