Framingham Election Results: Slimmest of Margins Means 'Largest Town' is No More

By the hair of its chinny chin chin, Framingham voted Tuesday night in support of leaving behind the mantle of being New England's largest town. Say hello to the City of Framingham.

Preliminary results say the the difference was 105 votes in a total of 11,332 cast - a 28.39 percent turnout. That broke down to 5,684 in favor of adopting a new city charter and 5,579 against, or 50.2 percent to 49.2 percent. See the full preliminary results below.

"After nearly a century of attempts to make Framingham a city, voters finally decided to defy the past and embrace the future," Mary Kate Feeney, the chair of pro-charter group Framingham First, said.

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• From 2016: New England's Largest Town Wants to Become a City
• Read the Home Rule Charter Proposal

Think the charter margin was close? Cheryl Gordon won a School Committee seat by four votes over incumbent Jim Stockless - 4,288 to 4,284. Incumbent Michael Brosnahan and Scott Wadland also secured seats. More than 2,400 left this section of the ballot blank.

Teri Banerjee will be the moderator, topping Raymond Marchand by a 5,305 to 3,758 tally.

Selectmen Cheryl Tully Stoll and Laurie Lee were reelected.

Framingham is (or was) New England's largest town with roughly 68,000 residents. This was Framingham's fourth attempt in three decades to become a city, failing in 1993, 1997, and 2013.

Now Framingham's Town Meeting will be supplanted with a city council and the selectmen will be replaced with a mayor.

The argument against Town Meeting was its alleged inefficiency for a town of Framingham's size and complexity. A streamlined city structure would address problems more rapidly and effectively, particularly for businesses, Framingham First argued. The organization got much of its strong financial backing from local businesses, which thought any changes took too long to slog through the cumbersome town government.

Opponents of the city form of government warned against too much power being in too few hands and a lack of transparency. Public input, they said, would be muted.

So what's next? A recount is very possible with a margin this thin. If the results are confirmed or unchallenged, a November election will determine the 11 city councilors and mayor. That's a big change from the current 216 Town Meeting members.

The new City Council will feature nine district members serving two-year terms and two at-large members serving four-year terms.

Today's Framingham news:

Framingham Could Get $1.9M For Infrastructure

The House approved a $200 million package for Chapter 90 funding.

Staples Looking to Sell?

The Framingham-based office supply retailer is reportedly exploring a sale.

Alison Bauter contributed to this report