Three Precincts Unable to Fill Vacancies Heading into Stoughton’s Annual Town Meeting

Heading into the , five precincts were short a combined 26 Town Meeting representative candidates.

Now, after the town election (where one person won a write-in campaign) and a precinct caucus held Wednesday, April 18 at the , a total of 10 vacancies remain, which means Town Meeting will start with 158 representatives instead of the allotted 168.

The precinct caucus is the last chance to fill any open seats prior to the start of the Annual Town Meeting.

Each precinct is designed to have 21 representatives, with 168 representatives in all.

Because of redistricting, all 168 Town Meeting representative seats were up for election this year, even those seats that were up for election .

Precincts 2 and 4 had a surplus of candidates and precinct 6 had exactly 21 heading into the April 10 election. Precinct 1 had two vacancies and Precinct 3 had one vacancy. The remaining three precincts had a combined 23 vacancies—seven in Precinct 5 and eight each in Precincts 7 and 8.

Dori Frankel in Precinct 5 was the lone person to win a seat on April 10 via a write-in campaign, getting the 12 votes necessary to be elected.

The other spots were filled at the April 18 Town Meeting Caucus.

Precincts 1 and 3 filled their vacancies, while Precincts 5 and 7 filled all but two seats, respectively, giving those precincts 19 representatives each. Precinct 8 was only able to fill one seat at the caucus, giving this precinct just 14 representatives.

The following residents were voted in at the April 18 Town Meeting Caucus:

• Precinct 1: Patricia Martin and James Fallon

• Precinct 3: Marguerite Mitchell

• Precinct 5: Norine Leaver, Betty Murphy, Lisa Larkin, Ellen Hahn, and Richard L. Morris, Jr.

• Precinct 7: Karen Abramson, Barbara Graffeo, Robin Zoll, Billy Mote, Paula Smith, and Joe Flynn

• Precinct 8: Kevin Stetson

Those who won seats via write-in or caucus vote are elected for a one-year term.

To see who won Town Meeting Representative seats at the April 10 town election (or click on the following link: Local Elec Results - 4-10-12.pdf).

Town Meeting starts Monday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the . An Organizational Town Meeting will be held Thursday, May 3 at 8:30 p.m. in the SHS cafeteria.