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Date: 10/12/2022
BELCHERTOWN – On Oct. 3 a special election took place for the vacant Belchertown Select Board seat. The results deemed Margaret “Peg” Louraine the winner, beating out Lesa Lessard Pearson and Curtis Carroll.
There were 1,168 votes cast for Louraine, 723 for Pearson and 237 for Carroll.
According to Town Clerk Terry Camerlin, there was an estimated 18 percent voter turnout as there were 2,135 total votes out of the 11,813 registered voters.
There were 111 ballots cast during early in-person voting, with an additional 134 absentee ballots received as well as 1,017 early vote by mail ballots received.
Camerlin said, “The voter turnout was as expected with a contested race.”
She added, “While I was encouraged by the increase in voter turnout for this local election, the goal of my office is to keep that number growing and to educate voters on the importance of participation in local elections. I will be working very hard to make voting as accessible as possible and to help the community become more informed about local elections.
Louraine expressed that she is excited to get started in helping Belchertown.
She said, “My first reaction was gratitude that people voted for me and put their trust in me. I have been saying since the beginning of my campaign that I wanted to break the logjam of 2-2 votes.”
She was sworn in after the results were posted and said her goal right now is “to learn.”
She said, “I want to meet with department heads to see the inner workings of the group and grasp what is going on and what is needed.”