The public is invited to a candidates forum on Wednesday, May 7, at 7 p.m. at the Old Town Hall in Aquinnah.

Oak Bluffs voters spoke their mind on money matters in the ballot box Thursday, approving overrides for the town operating budget and a new $8.3 million fire station. But an override for the $6.8 million project to rebuild the town hall failed. Elections were also held in Edgartown and West Tisbury.

In Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, balloting takes place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. In West Tisbury polls are open from noon to 8 p.m. There is a selectman's race in Oak Bluffs.

For the second year in a row, at least three Island towns are facing an election season without a single contested race. Ballots are set for Chilmark, Edgartown and West Tisbury without any candidates facing opposition — in fact, some positions are lacking any candidates at all.

Vineyard voters followed the rest of the state in electing Cong. Edward J. Markey to the U.S. Senate in a special election Tuesday.

Mr. Markey, a Democrat from Malden who has spent 37 years in the House of Representatives, was elected to the senate with 55 per cent of the vote, the Boston Globe reported. His opponent was Gabriel E. Gomez of Cohasset, a businessman and former Navy SEAL.

Voter turnout on the Island averaged 32.5 per cent, higher than the statewide average of 27 per cent.

Polls will be open across the Island for an unusual June election today.

Republican Gabriel E. Gomez of Cohasset and U.S. Cong. Edward J. Markey of Malden, a Democrat, are vying to take the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry, who stepped down in January to become Secretary of State.

It’s late June and few people are thinking about politics, even though a campaign to elect a new U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is in its final days.

A special state election will be held on Tuesday to fill the seat left vacant by John Kerry who left in January to take the job as U.S. Secretary of State.

The two candidates for this key Senate seat could not be more different.

It seems the wheels fell off the Obama Express just as the victory celebration ended. The hangover has set in and it may last four more years, if he survives the gods of politics. Suddenly, even ardent supporters are stunned as they watch their leader stumble from one crisis to the next.

The Vineyard voted in line with the rest of the commonwealth Tuesday, backing Democratic U.S. Cong. Edward Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez, a former naval special warfare lieutenant commander, in the state primary to replace Sen. John Kerry, who resigned in January to become secretary of state.

Town clerks reported relatively low turnout, around 19.5 per cent Islandwide, with slightly higher turnout in Chilmark and Tisbury, which also held town elections. The two town elections featured no contested races but several ballot questions related to spending, all of which passed.

Early morning voter turnout for the special state primary and town elections Tuesday was low, but, in at least one town, steady. Oak Bluffs town clerk Deborah Ratcliff said that, as of 10 a.m., she had seen more voters than expected at the public library.

“We’ve had somebody here every moment,” she said. Shortly after, the lone pair of voters in the ballot area left as two more walked into the polls. Still, Ms. Ratcliff said only about 40 voters had shown up to mark their ballots.