Behind A Rare Beverly School Committee Double Write-In Campaign

BEVERLY, MA — A write-in political campaign involves not only the daunting task of convincing people to vote for you — but also carries the added burden of having to teach residents on how to vote for you.

That was the challenge for both Jeffrey Silva and Lindsay Ducharme as they each conducted a write-in campaign for the Beverly Ward 4 School Committee seat after John Mullady opted not to run for re-election after the deadline to be on the ballot had already passed.

"It was super hard," Ducharme told Patch. "The burden was really on myself and my opponent to get that out to our constituents. For me, I'd never run for elected office before. I had to learn and for myself and have people around me who knew the process."

As Ducharme waited for the official results on Thursday, she did allow on her social media campaign page that all indications through unofficial results were that she had fallen short with Silva at 495 votes, her at 404 and 725 spots left blank.

"I've been describing it as a lot of big wins and small wins along the way," she told Patch. "I didn't get what I really wanted in the end — at least what I was planning for. But I am grateful for the opportunity.

"I would have been very interested to know if it would have been different if our names were on the ballot."

Because of the circumstances, Ducharme and Silva had to bring stickers with their names on them along when they did the traditional campaign door-knocking.

"I had to really get out and talk to a lot of constituents and introduce myself because they didn't really know me," said the first-time candidate, who is active in the Beverly Parent-Teacher Organization. "Then you have to get stickers in their hands and explain to them the sticker process. Most people don't know that because it's an uncommon thing."

"The pressure was on. What if they forget their sticker? What if they don't know how to spell your last name? There was a lot of talking through the clunkiness."

She said she also had to remind those using the sticker method to affix it smoothly so it doesn't get stuck in the voting machine and get them to make sure to fill out the little bubble next to the sticker to indicate that a vote had been cast. She said she was told, however, that she would receive credit for a vote if it could be reasonably concluded the name written on the ballot was meant to be hers.

Still, she said it all would have been worth it for the chance to bring her voice to the School Committee during a time of difficult and highly consequential decisions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"I am disappointed in the result," she said. "I was looking forward to doing the work."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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