We extend our congratulations to the winners and losers in Greenfield’s general election.
On Tuesday, voters elected Roxann Wedegartner to be their next mayor. Her four-year term starts in January, and the real work will begin to keep the Greenfield’s momentum going while keeping the city affordable. That will be a huge task as the top leader.
The 13-member City Council will undergo a change-up with the election of these candidates: Precinct 1, Edward Jarvis; Precinct 2, Daniel Guin; Precinct 3, Ginnie DeSorgher; Precinct 4, John Bottomely; Precinct 9, Norman Hirschfeld (who was appointed earlier this year); At-Large, Christine Forgey and Philip Elmer.
For School Committee, Glenn Johnson, who was appointed this year, won by the narrowest of margins. Other posts, including three School Committee seats, had no contests.
Then, there are those who worked hard to get the two ballot questions passed — for construction of a $19.5 million library and passage of a safe city ordinance.
So, why congratulate the losers? Because they decided to get involved in their city, and although they didn’t receive enough votes to win, their efforts are noteworthy.
Certainly the race for mayor was extremely close.
Sheila Gilmour, who came in second with 1,882 of 33.87 percent of the votes, wasn’t that far off from Wedegartner, who had 2,068 votes or 37.2 percent. Gilmour should be commended for campaigning hard.
Of course, Gilmour will remain on the City Council, representing Precinct 6, but we wonder whether she will consider another run in four years.
We also say well done to Brickett Allis, who faced an uphill battle with a write-in campaign. Allis decided to stay in the race following his loss in the preliminary election, which might have made his constituents happy but drew criticism that was often unfair from his rivals’ supporters.
In the end, Allis received 1,539 write-in votes or 27.6 percent. That was an admirable showing at the polls.
While we are on this subject, we thank Verne Sund, the Precinct 1 incumbent, for his service on the council and in the military. Then there are Taunette Greene, James Henry, Michael Terounzo, who ran for City Council seats, and Kia Burton-King, who was in that close race for School Committee.
But in looking at the numbers for this election (see the story on this topic in Friday’s edition), we note two issues that give us pause.
First, voter turnout was only 47 percent. That means less than half of the city’s 11,880 registered voters bothered to make it to the polls Tuesday or submit an absentee ballot.
That is an improvement over the last two biennial elections — in 2015 and 2017, the turnout was 27 percent and 40.6 percent, respectively — but why would 53 percent of the city’s 11,880 registered voters not bother to vote?
Another troubling aspect about this election is the huge number of blanks left on the ballots. For instance, 65 voters did not choose any of the three candidates. The same happened for the City Council At-Large seats with 3,068 blanks. The list goes on.
We suspect voters may have only gone to the polls for one issue or candidate. Or they simply didn’t inform themselves of who was running for what. But there were opportunities to learn via several forums, information printed in this paper, plus campaigning by the candidates and ballot question supporters and opponents.
Voters, if you care about your community, then don’t give up your say in how it’s run.