Election Results: Hingham Votes In New Selectman

In Saturday’s Town Election, the people of Hingham voted in a new Selectman, choosing Irma Lauter by over 600 votes.  Lauter received 2,081 votes compared to the incumbent John Riley’s  1,435 and Bernard Manning's 85 votes.

Hingham made a clear choice in the Town Moderator race, choosing Cross Street resident Michael Puzo by a margin of over 2,200 votes. Puzo received 83 percent of the votes compared to Manning’s 17 percent.  Puzo will take over immediately and is expected to moderate night three of Town Meeting on Monday night at Hingham High School.

The School Committee race for two open seats drew the most voters. Paul Gannon and Dennis Friedman won, beating out Manning.  Gannon took 2,218 votes, Friedman received 1,731 votes and Manning finished with 867.

In the closest race, the people of Hingham voted against the town having an elected Treasurer/Collector become an appointed Treasurer/Collector .  The No’s took 50.3 percent of the vote while the Yes’s received 49.7 percent of the votes.

Hingham voters also elected Kevin Connelly  to the Housing Authority over Elizabeth James  and Patricia Neely . Connelly received 1,625 votes, James took 626 votes, and Neely finished with 447 votes.

John Stoddard was also elected to the Municipal Light Board (three year term) over Roger Freeman.

The top vote getter of the day was Town Clerk Eileen MCCracken who ran unopposed. McCracken tallied  3,012 votes.

The other unopposed candidates who also earned victories on Saturday were Michael Shaughnessy (Board of Assessors), Peter Bickford (Board of Health), John Ryan ( Two Year Municipal Light Board), Judith Sneath (Planning Board), Michael Salerno (Sewer Comission), and Budd Thorne (Recreation Commission).

As expected by McCracken earlier in the week, Saturday's Town Election saw an above average turnout.  There was 22.6 percent voter turnout across the 7 different precincts. Last year’s Town Election only saw a 15 percent turnout.

Click here to see the full list of election results and precinct by precinct results.