Yarmouth election results: Write-in campaign wins school seat. Who won Select Board?

Susan Vaughn

First-time candidate Joyce Flynn and former Select Board member Tracy Post won the two vacant seats on the Yarmouth Select Board from the five candidates running in Tuesday’s annual town election, according to unofficial results from Town Clerk Mary Maslowski.

The Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District Committee had no candidates that qualified for the ballot, but Glenn Martin ran a write-in campaign and collected 135 write-in votes for the one vacant seat. Irene Paine had 58 write-in votes.

One ballot question, an $880,000 Proposition 2 ½ override to fund the shortfall in the town’s portion of the $43.8 million Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District budget, passed 2,095 to 1,690. The issue passed easily at the town meeting.

Select Board candidate Joyce Flynn, right, campaigns outside the Yarmouth Senior Center with residents Irene Paine and Jim Wolf Tuesday afternoon. Flynn was successful in her bid for the Select Board seat.
Select Board candidate Joyce Flynn, right, campaigns outside the Yarmouth Senior Center with residents Irene Paine and Jim Wolf Tuesday afternoon. Flynn was successful in her bid for the Select Board seat.

Flynn was the top vote-getter with 1,913 votes of the total 3,898 cast. Flynn has been an active member and chair of the town’s energy committee and has served on the Cape Light Compact governing board for several years. In addition to renewable energy, Flynn spoke in a pre-election interview of focusing efforts on affordable workforce housing, the school system and the local business districts as well as the natural environment.

'Entrepreneur at the age of 8': Yarmouth Girl Scout breaks cookie record in Eastern Mass.

Post followed Flynn with 1,861 votes. She previously served four terms on the Select Board and a total of 20 years on the planning board and other town committees. She was defeated in a run for state representative in 2022 and said that she decided to run again for the Select Board because she missed her work.

Among the other Select Board candidates, Thomas Nickinello Sr. came in third with 1,229 votes followed by Jeni Wheeler with 1,191 and Keith Kesten at 558. All the Select Board candidates, except Post, were running for the first time.

Precincts 1 and 7 had the highest vote counts at 673 and 677, respectively. A total of 17.6 percent of the town’s 22,127 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday.

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Yarmouth election results: Override, Select Board seats, school board

Advertisement