Wilmington Voters Back Markey With Record Turnout Numbers

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington voters put their support behind incumbent Sen. Ed Markey in the Democratic primary Tuesday. Record numbers of voters turned out for the state primary.

Over one-third of Wilmington registered voters cast ballots, with a hotly-watched senate primary and all voters eligible to vote by mail due to the coronavirus. That's more than seven times the number in 2016's state primary, when turnout was just 4.9 percent, Town Clerk Christine Touma-Conway said.

Approximately 6,463 residents voted, for 37 percent turnout, Touma-Conway said.

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Markey took 50.8 percent of the 4,831 Democratic primary votes, to Rep. Joe Kennedy III's 46.5 percent. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton also won Wilmington's support, winning over three-quarters of the votes against his two challengers.

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On the Republican side, Wilmington voters supported businessman Kevin O'Connor in the U.S. Senate primary. He took 57.6 percent of the 1,615 votes, against entrepreneur Shiva Ayyadurai.

Mail-in voting was successful in boosting turnout and went smoothly, Touma-Conway said.

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"While the mailed voting was more work than I am ready to talk about because it was so traumatizing (I’m only half kidding about that), it was worth it because of the increased turnout," Touma-Conway said. "And hopefully having gone through the experience during the primary has taught us some process lessons that will improve our efficiency for November, when we can probably count on at least double the number of mailed ballots and a much higher number of in person early voting."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.