As debate heats up over a proposed law to limit patient/nurse ratios in Massachusetts, leaders at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Island nurses have joined the fray.

It’s an even-numbered year and midterm election season has arrived in Dukes County as well as around the country.

An Oak Bluffs attorney easily won the Democratic nomination for Dukes County clerk of courts in the state primary Tuesday.

With two local races attracting voter interest, town clerks and poll workers around the Island were reporting steady turnout Tuesday for the state primary. Polls are open in every town from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A contested Democratic primary race for the county clerk of courts seat has been heating up all summer and is now set to be decided in another week.

State and county primary ballots are set for the upcoming midterm elections.

All six Island libraries will participate in a voter registration drive on Saturday, June 16, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Aquinnah voters elected Jim Newman to a sixth term as selectman at the annual town election Wednesday. Mr. Newman won a three-way race for the seat with 80 votes.

Three candidates are running for a single seat on the Aquinnah board of selectmen this year, each longtime town residents with differing visions for the future.

A painstaking hand recount supervised by the Edgartown town clerk Monday found the vote for a new Katama Airfield hangar was a tie.