One Incumbent Reelected, Another Ousted in Town Elections

Marc Johnson will be returning to the Hamilton Board of Selectmen for another term while in Wenham, Molly Martins will not.

Jack Wilhelm defeated Molly Martins in the race for a three-year term on the Wenham Board of Selectmen. Wilhelm received 578 votes to Martins' 267 votes. For the past three years, Martins has been the board's chairwoman.

In Hamilton, Scott Maddern was also elected to the Board of Selectmen. He currently serves on the Finance Advisory Committee.

Maddern and Johnson will serve three-year terms on the five member board. Maddern received 568 votes and Johnson received 515 votes.

Jack Hauck received 237 votes and Bill Dery received 195 votes and neither were elected to the board.

Three new members were also elected to the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School Committee - Deb Evans, Melissa Even Moore and Jeanise Bertrand.

All three women will now serve a three-year term on the committee.

"It's exciting, it feels good," Evans said afterward. She topped the ticket with 1,335 votes. "I am glad I was supported."

Moore ran unsuccessfully for School Committee last year. This year, she received 1,110 votes.

"I think people now know who I am," she said.

It was Bertrand's first run for publicly-elected office.

"I'm ecstatic," she said. "I am very happy. Now the work starts."

Bertrand, who is 22 and a senior at Salem State University, may be one of the youngest School Committee members in the state, said her father, Edmond.

Richard Boroff, who had previously served on the School Committee, received 705 votes, 37 fewer votes than Bertrand and was not elected.

Voter turnout was 15 percent in Hamilton and 30 percent in Wenham.

All other races on the ballots in both towns in Thursday's election were uncontested.

[Editor's note: We've corrected the first name of a source since initial publication of this item.]