BY KATIE GOSS ’23
On Tuesday, Nov. 5, 58 cities and towns in Massachusetts held municipal elections to select mayors, city coun- cil leaders and school board members. Although South Hadley did not hold municipal elections, this year nearby towns Amherst, Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke did.
According to the town of Amherst’s official website, only 13.73 percent of its registered voters actually voted in the elections. Seven people ran for the five seated position of the School Commit- tee, with three newcomers and four of the five incumbents seeking re-election. Anastasia Ordonez was the only cur- rent member who was not running for re-election. Only one newcomer, Benjamin Herrington, won a seat, with the other four incumbents returning to their positions.
Springfield and Chicopee were two towns in Massachusetts that ran mayoral elections. In Springfield, with a reported 76.54 percent of the votes in his favor, Mayor Domenic J. Sarno was re-elected. Sarno is a Democrat and ran against Yolanda Cancel — also a Democrat, Sarno continued his campaign on bettering public safety in the town and addressing issues of youth and gang violence along with renewed economic development in the area.
Chicopee also voted on a new mayor. After the previous mayor, Richard J. Kos, announced he would not be seeking reelection, the race between Joseph Morissette and John Vieau, both non-partisan, began. Vieau, Chicopee’s former City Council president ended up winning the race with 57 percent of the votes.
A question on the ballot in Holyoke proposed raising property taxes in order to fund building two new middle schools in the area. The ballot measure was voted down by 64 percent.
“It makes me worried for the future of the city’s schools for the current kids,” said Helena Middleton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst ’23. Middleton grew up in Holyoke and graduated from Holyoke High School.
“I disagree with the voters who turned it down because I feel like they could have done more for the children of Holyoke with their voting power,” Middleton said. “It is only going to become a domino effect going forward with this vote being turned down.”
Holyoke public schools released a statement responding to the defeat. “While the results are disappointing, we will continue to work closely with the Building Committee, MSBA, and the public to explore opportunities to realize the educational vision of the Holyoke public schools,” the statement said.
The Mount Holyoke College Democrats recently phone banked for Estele Borges, a mayoral candidate in Taunton, Massachusetts. Borges was endorsed by the Massachusetts Democratic Party and served for five years as a city councilor. She ran against Massachusetts State Representative Shaunna O’Connell (R), who won with 63 percent of the votes. As the first woman mayor of Taunton, O’Connell’s win is historic.
Prior to local elections, the College Democrats also gathered around 80 signatures on a petition to put ranked-choice voting on a future ballot in Massachusetts.
Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank their choices from most to least favorite, rather than choosing a singular candidate. Although the club does not take a position for or against ranked-choice voting as a whole, their goal was to advocate for allowing the decision to be voted on by the people of Massachusetts.
“I think [ranked-choice voting] is really idealistic, but I don’t really get how it would solve anything,” Natalie Glick ’23 said. “If you’re just ranking the choices on a ballot, it’s still voting and the person you would have voted for anyways would still be first on your list.”