After 21 years in the job, Ralph Packer lost his position as a Tisbury water commissioner in this week’s annual town election.

Mr. Packer’s defeat by Roland Miller, by a margin of 359 to 191 votes, was the only upset of the election; all the other candidates standing for reelection were returned.

The town ballot was otherwise marked by a lack of controversy and of voter enthusiasm.

Only 585 people turned out, about 21 per cent of those registered. This was in sharp contrast to last April, when the contentious issue of beer and wine sales brought 1,382 voters out. And last November’s Presidential election saw 2,433 turn out, or 87 per cent of the total enrolled.

All eight of the live ballot questions were handily approved; a ninth, relating to the funding for benefits for former town employees remained on the ballot paper, but already had been defeated at town meeting. It was duly defeated again in the vote, 328 to 187.

The biggest vote of the day went to Geoghan Coogan, the only candidate for the selectman’s position vacated by Denys Wortman.

Mr. Coogan received 497 votes.

Mr. Wortman, however, was not allowed to leave public life. In what he jokingly described later as “a conspiracy against me,” he won a position he was not seeking on the finance and advisory committee as a write-in candidate, with just six votes.

He has previously served on that committee, and is yet to decide if he will accept the job.

The water commissioner position was the most actively fought of the election, at least on Mr. Miller’s part. He plastered the town with signs and handed out flyers outside town meeting.

He was a member of the water works charter review committee, whose recommended changes to the department’s governance and operation were unanimously approved at town meeting.

Now he will have a hand in adopting those changes over the course of his three-year term. Somewhat ironically, Mr. Packer was one of those who pushed hardest for the charter review committee to be established.

After the contest, both men were gracious, with Mr. Packer offering any necessary assistance, and Mr. Miller acknowledging his opponent as “a very decent fellow who devoted many years to the service of the town.”

On Thursday, Mr. Packer recalled that his long service as a commissioner had begun entirely by accident.

“I only ended up in the job because there was no candidate on the ballot,” he recalled.

He had not intended to run, he said, until “I met a guy coming out of the post office” who offered to campaign for him.

There were three other contests.

Four candidates ran for three slots on the library board of trustees. The two incumbents, Nan Carter and Jo B. Weinberg, were returned with 398 and 307 votes respectively and Pamela S. Street won the third position over Anna Marie D’Addarie 320 to 224.

There were three candidates for two three-year positions on the public works commission. The two members standing for reelection, Arthur B. Dickson and John Thayer, got 358 and 427 votes respectively. The challenger, Thomas W. Pachico, got 211.

The tightest race was that for a single two-year position on the public works commission. There was no incumbent, and three candidates. Leo P. DeSorcy (198 votes), just beat Timothy S. Stobie (182) and Nancy E. Hall (167).

No one ran for a five-year term on the planning board, but Robert Aldrin’s name was written in by 18 people.