Politics & Government

Sitting Council Re-Elected

Republicans pick up under-ticket seats.

As someone said after the results were finally in Tuesday, “the Republicans won.” And so it is. Farmington Republicans won every office across the board except for one Board of Education seat.

The results are surprising for a town with a Democratic majority.

From the Town Council chairman seat that Jeff Hogan won unopposed, to the two constable seats, retained by Geno Avenoso and Diane Rogers, Republicans drew more votes than their Democratic peers.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Petitioning candidates Harry Kraiza and William Baker garnered little of the town's vote and Town Plan and Zoning Commision Chairman Skip Pogson, who has served 25 years, also found little support on the unaffiliated line.

The results mean voters will see the same Town Council next year as they did this year, with the exception of chairman Mike Clark, who chose not to run again. Clark is up for U.S. representative in the 5th Congressional District.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Town Council members are Republicans CJ Thomas and Nancy Nickerson and Democrat Mike Demicco in the first district and Republicans Patty Stoddard and Charlie Keniston and Democrat John Vibert in the second.

The results were delayed due to a mechanical failure. One of the tabulator machines that counts the ballots stopped working at the school at 7:34 p.m. And the machine refused to accept any more votes. But then it also refused to print the end receipt.

“We had a mechanical failure on the scanner after it processed 1500 ballots. It made a humming sound and wouldn’t take another one,” said Moderator Ann Newbury.

Finally Republican Registrar Edward Leary brought a second machine and nearly 2 hours later the second machine had been fed and had counted about 1,800 ballots.

The town saw about 28 percent voter turnout, about 10 percent below most elections Democratic Registrar Barbara Brenneman said.

The sewer referendum question was defeated, 1,611 to 1,435.

More election stories will be posted later. Vote by vote tallies can be seen .


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