Cape Ann voters follow state trends

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March 8, 2012

Cape Ann voters follow state trends

By Stephanie Bergman Staff Writer The Gloucester Daily Times Thu Mar 08, 2012, 05:55 AM EST

Cape Ann voters followed the lead of their colleagues across the state Tuesday, backing Mitt Romney to challenge President Obama in Tuesday's presidential primary on Cape Ann.

A total of 4,215 people cast votes on Cape Ann on Tuesday — 2,144 of them in Gloucester, 802 in Rockport, 712 in Manchester and 553 in Essex. Essex, however, has four disputed ballots that the Board of Registrars need to discuss before they can certify the results, Town Clerk Christina write said Wednesday.

In the Republican presidential primary, Romney took the overwhelming majority of votes, garnering 500 votes in Manchester, 296 in Essex, 489 in Rockport and 1,145 in Gloucester, for a total of 2,430 across Cape Ann.

His nearest challenger on cape Ann as well as across the state was former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum with 325 votes, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 323.

Without a challenger, Obama took virtually all of the votes on the Democratic side. The exceptions were write-in votes, six in Rockport and 12 in Gloucester, plus the blank ballots cast in all of the Cape Ann municipalities.

The write-in candidates were not listed on the results provided by the Gloucester City Clerk's office, but according to data supplied by the Rockport Town Clerk, those who supported write-in candidates in the Democratic primary voted for performance artist Vermin Supreme (3 votes), Romney (2) and Vice-President Joseph Biden (1 vote).

Voters chose more than the major parties' presidential hopefuls.

Gloucester's Lucas Noble and Christina Bain of Manchester were elected as the state committee representatives for the Republican Party, while Daniel Lauzon and Kathleen Pasquin were elected as the state committee representatives for the Democratic Party.

Full voting data, including the candidates for town and city committee, can be found on the websites of Gloucester and Rockport. Anyone seeking full voting results from Manchester and Essex should contact the town clerks in those towns.

There was also one other Presidential primary on the ballot, albeit for an often overlooked political party.

There, Lexington native Jill Stein scored a shutout win over her opponents for nomination as the candidate for the national Green Party. Stein won all but one of the 10 votes cast for Green party candidates in the primary, with the one dissenting vote cast as a write-in candidate.

Stephanie Bergman can be reached at 978-238-7000, x3451, or at sbergman@gloucestertimes.com.