Ballots are shaping up in for spring town elections on the Vineyard, with contested selectmen’s races in West Tisbury and Oak Bluffs. Edgartown voters will see a two-way contest for the planning board.
Vineyard voters turned out in high numbers Tuesday, backing Democratic candidates up and down the ballot and electing Robert Ogden as the new county sheriff and Paulo DeOliveira as Register of Deeds.
The first presidential election reported in the columns of the Vineyard Gazette was that of 1848, two years after the founding of the Gazette by Edgar Marchant. The election took place on Tuesday. On Friday the Gazette printed the result in Dukes County, which was as follows, the figures being those for Taylor, Cass and Van Buren in that order: Edgartown 157, 46, 35; Tisbury 99, 38, 42; Chilmark 34, 49, 4; total 290, 133, 81. Dukes County therefore went Whig by a majority of 76.
The three parties made the following nominations for county officers to be voted for next Tuesday: -
For Representative - Republican, Cornelius B. Marchant, of Edgartown; Democratic, James F. Cleveland, of Tisbury; Prohibition, Ulysses E. Mayhew, of Tisbury.
For Register of Probate - Republican, *Samuel Keniston, of Edgartown; Democratic, Hebron Vincent, of Edgartown; Prohibition, George Nolen, of Cottage City.
Vineyard voters will join their counterparts across the country at the polls Tuesday in a presidential election year expected to go down in history for unprecedented rancor, and an electorate on edge.
Only Aquinnah and Chilmark still count ballots by hand, using wooden boxes that have stood the test of time. But similar boxes lie hidden in offices and odd corners around the Island.
Gretchen Underwood, a retired administrator from Oak Bluffs, said the commission should make fiscally responsible decisions that benefit all residents.
