Mike McCormack has beaten off a determined challenge for his job by former state police Sgt. Neal Maciel to be re-elected as Dukes County sheriff.

After weeks of heavy campaigning by both candidates, Mr. McCormack won handily on the night on Tuesday. In total, voters in the six Island towns preferred him 4,509 to 3,251. The third candidate, Warren Gosson, garnered just 405 votes.

Only in Oak Bluffs did Mr. Maciel come close; the vote there was 965 to 940 for Mr. McCormack. The results in the other towns were: Tisbury, 1,015 to 875; West Tisbury, 938 to 475; Edgartown, 1,111 to 703; Chilmark, 359 to 180; and Aquinnah, 121 to 78.

Vineyard voters turned out in large numbers for the election, and broke heavily for Democratic candidates. If Massachusetts bucked the national trend toward Republicans, Islanders did it in spades.

The result in the 10th congressional district, which includes the Cape and Islands, was the outstanding example. Before the election, the district was considered the conservatives’ best chance to pick up a seat in the state, but Democrat William Keating won the closely-fought contest.

On the Vineyard, however, the margin was almost two-to-one: 4,985 to 2556. In Edgartown, generally considered the most Republican of the towns, the margin was much closer — 1,032 to 967 — while in Aquinnah, the Democratic bastion at the other end of the Island, it was 157 to 26.

Vineyard resident Joe Van Nes, who ran as the Bring the Troops Home candidate, got 519 votes.

Islanders collectively voted against two questions seeking to change the sales tax regime, although Edgartown bucked the trend by a bare majority (925 to 896) on question one, to remove sales tax on alcoholic drinks. In this, Edgartown joined voters statewide; the measure to repeal sales tax on alcohol passed.

Overall, however, Islanders voted no to question one, by a margin of 4,414 to 3,601.

The other sales tax issue, question three on the ballot paper, which would have reduced the general state sales tax from 6.25 to three per cent, was rejected 4,567 to 3,380. It was also rejected statewide.

Question two, which sought to repeal the section 40B provision that allows developers of affordable housing to skirt local zoning bylaws, went down 4,894 to 2,738. It also went down statewide.

A fourth, nonbinding ballot question yielded surprisingly the most decisive result of all the questions on the Vineyard ballots. By margin of 5,043 to 2,333, voters favored legislation that would see marijuana legalized and taxed in the same way as alcohol. West Tisbury showed itself to be the most pot-friendly town on the Vineyard; the margin there was more than three to one in favor.