The biggest headline emanating from Saturday’s municipal election is that 15 percent of the town’s 10,443 registered voters participated.
And even that requires interpretation.
Eleven candidates for office were unopposed on the 2024 ballot, and all were elected without significant write-in additions. The candidates and their office and unofficial vote totals were:
- Dan Brosgol, Select Board – 1,469
- Angel Pettitt, Bedford School Committee – 1,451
- David Powell, Moderator – 1,460
- Chris Gittins, Planning Board – 1,432
- Anita Raj, Board of Health – 1,414
- Maureen Richichi, Board of Health – 1,442
- Brian O’Donnell, Regional Vocational School Committee – 1,456
- Gyasi Burks-Abbott, Board of Library Trustees – 1,382
- Emily Prince, Board of Library Trustees – 1,455
- Nicolas Howard, Board of Assessors – 1,357
- Lauren Crews, Bedford Housing Authority – 1,410
The unofficial total number of people voting was 1,571. Through last Wednesday, the number of early ballots received by the town clerk’s office was 1,217 – more than three-quarters of the overall total. The total number of votes cast in last year’s election, which also had no contested races, was 1,306.
So, this year, the number of people casting ballots in person at John Glenn Middle School last Saturday between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. was fewer than 350 (assuming a few more early ballots were opened Thursday and Friday).
“We’ve been talking with each other most of the day,” cracked one election worker in the stillness of the middle school gym.
When longtime election worker Bob Dorer announced at 6 p.m. that the polls had closed, the audience assembled outside the gymnasium consisted of Brosgol, Burks-Abbott, Prince, her husband Philip, and two police officers waiting to escort the ballots to be locked in Town Hall.
Town Clerk Bridget Rodrigue told the newly-elected officials that she can’t administer the oath of office until the ballots are certified early this week.
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