Voters in all six Island towns threw their strong support to Vice President Joseph Biden over President Donald Trump Tuesday, according to preliminary results after a long day at the polls. And in an extremely tight three-way race, Clarence (Trip) Barnes, 3rd and Ben Robinson appear to have edged out Josh Goldstein for two elected Tisbury seats on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
Late-night results also showed that Vineyard voters defeated Question 3 on the ballot, rejecting an attempt by the Dukes County Commission to switch its county treasurer from an elected to an appointed position.
Aquinnah, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury had all turned in unofficial results by 10:30 p.m. Chilmark, where ballots are counted by hand, submitted its final results just after midnight.
The only contested local race on the ballot was a three-way battle for Tisbury’s two elected seats on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. While Clarence A. (Trip) Barnes maintained a steady lead throughout the night for the town’s first seat on the commission, garnering 7,842 votes, Mr. Robinson was able to pull away from Mr. Goldstein in Chilmark and Aquinnah after running nearly dead even in the down-Island towns. The final unofficial tally from Tuesday night was 5,974 votes for Mr. Robinson and 5,911 for Mr. Goldstein, giving him a 63-vote margin of victory.
Unofficial results show an approximately 78 per cent turnout — just higher than 2016 turnout in both percentage and in actual vote count. Total voter turnout was 12,587.
Voters on the Island soundly defeated ballot Question 3, which would have changed the county treasurer position from elected to appointed. With results from all six towns tallied early Wednesday morning, the measure failed 55 per cent to 45 per cent. The question received more support in up-Island towns than in down-Island ones, with both Aquinnah and Chilmark recording more “yes” votes than “no” votes. All other towns rejected voted against the measure.
The six towns went for Mr. Biden at a rate of nearly four to one in a historic presidential election that appears to have prompted record turnout across the Vineyard and country. Mr. Biden received 78 per cent of the votes cast on the Island.
Voters joined the rest of the state in strongly backing ballot Question 1, which involved the right to repair for mechanics, and narrowly favored ranked choice voting.
Statewide, the right to repair question was leading by about 75 per cent to 25 per cent. Ranked choice voting was much closer, with only about 35 per cent of the state totals reported.
Mr. Biden ran the strongest in West Tisbury, where he captured 1,942 votes to President Trump’s 330. He also captured votes at a nearly ten-to-one margin in Aquinnah. His worst result was in Edgartown, where he won 2,126 votes to Mr. Trump’s 841.
Results will be updated as they become available.
This story has been updated to include late-counted votes from West Tisbury, as well as vote totals from Chilmark and Aquinnah.
