Brookline Voter Turnout, Results For Primaries Sept. 4

BROOKLINE, MA — The two hotly contested local races in Brookline ended both relatively close with Tommy Vitolo taking the 15th Norfolk District seat in Massachusetts Congress and Nika Elugardo taking the Democratic primary in General Court for the 15th District Suffolk. It was those two races that brought out nearly 30 percent of registered voters to the polls in the Tuesday primary election, said Town Clerk Patrick Ward.

Although the polls were mostly quiet Tuesday morning, by 7 p.m. nearly 26 percent of Brookline's registered voters had cast a vote.

"Turnout of 30 percent was more than I predicted" said Brookline Clerk Pat Ward during the last minute rush to vote.

Ward attributed the higher than average turnout for the primary to the handful of contested races.

Brookline had a number of hotly contested races: Town Meeting Members Rebecca Stone and Tommy Vitolo were facing off for State Rep and then there was a hot race in precinct 5, where Nika Elugardo and Jeff Sanchez were vying to represent the Democrats in General Court for the 15th District Suffolk ticket on top of the competitive race for governor and secretary of state.

By 9 p.m. it looked like the first major upset was close to settled for the 15th Suffolk District: Jeffrey Sanchez, the State House Ways and Means chair person, lost his Democratic primary to Nika Elugardo in the 15th Suffolk District. It wasn't until later that unofficial results had Vitolo winning.

At noon, a little more than 10 percent of registered voters had made a trip to the voting booths. By 2 p.m. that percent rose to about 14.2 percent. A little more than half of Brookline residents are registered to vote. Of the 36,662 voters some 5,221 people came out as of noon, according to town data.

As for how the heat impacted the day? The Town Clerk's office said they paid extra attention to poll workers.

"They all had plenty of water and they had fans if there were no AC available," said Ward.

Election 2018: Candidate Profile Of Tommy Vitolo

Election 2018: Candidate Profile Of Rebecca Stone

• Interview with both Tommy Vitolo and Rebecca Stone

Here are the other contested primaries to keep an eye on:

Primary Election Guide For Brookline: What To Know For Sept 4

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff