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On Wednesday morning, Town Clerk Nicole Pedercini announced that the total turnout for the local election was 1,823, or 38 percent of the town s registered voters. That is modest compared to the 3,600 local ballots cast in last fall s presidential election, but it swamps participation numbers for a typical spring vote. We ve talked about how some of the loudest voices have been sort of controlling the narrative, newly elected Select Board member Jeffrey Johnson said Tuesday night. I think the votes now control the narrative. Johnson s contest against Anthony Boskovich and a second Select Board race that saw Wade Hasty defeat Albert Cummings likely were major contributors to the big turnout numbers.
WILLIAMSTOWN â Jeff Johnson and Wade Hasty will join the Williamstown Select Board, according to preliminary vote counts, in a town election marked by exceptionally high turnout.
Johnson, a member of the Diversity Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee and a service coordinator supervisor in the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, defeated attorney Anthony Boskovich 1,140 to 641, according to the count Tuesday night, winning a three-year term to the town s highest governing body.
He takes the seat held by Anne OâConnor, who announced that she would not seek reelection.
Hasty, an Army veteran and graduate student at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, defeated Albert Cummings IV, a musician and construction contractor, 989 to 770, in a bid for the last year of Jeffrey Thomas term.
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Jeffrey Johnson and Wade Hasty will take seats on the Williamstown, Massachusetts select board after Tuesday’s high turnout municipal election.
According to official numbers released Wednesday, 1,823 voters representing a 38% turnout went to the polls in the community of around 7,500. Amid a series of scandals regarding police misconduct and larger conversations about systemic racism in Williamstown, some townspeople – including candidate Albert Cummings – felt threatened by the discourse.
“I m worried about the town, said Cummings. I ve never seen the town- In my whole life. I ve never seen this much tension, I guess you d call it. I mean, I think it could even go into turmoil. I mean, the town is, is a mess right now. And there s people that are just trying to find everything bad there is about Williamstown, and I m not going stand for it.”
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Almost a year after a federal lawsuit against the town police department set off a chain of scandals and resignations, Williamstown, Massachusetts municipal elections are coming up May 11th. WAMC has the second part of our series of candidate profiles.
“I essentially sued cops for a living, said the candidate. And over that period of time, I came to learn policing pretty well, I know good policing when I see it. I know bad policing when I see it. I know good police administration when I see it. And I know bad police administration. So as I lived here, you know, you can t take your eye off the ball when you ve got a three decade career. And so I watched police and police interactions, and I was really impressed with what I saw on the street.”