Greene Wins Seat on Mount Greylock School CommitteeBy Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
11:35PM / Tuesday, November 03, 2020 | |
 Carolyn Greene greets voters at Williamstown Elementary School on Tuesday morning. |
Williamstown had a turnout of 76 percent.
Update at 12:47 p.m., Nov. 3: Carolyn Greene will finish the last two years of a four-year term on Mount Greylock Regional School Committee. Results from Lanesborough gave Greene 759 votes to Elizabeth Beck's 536. The total vote from both towns gave Greene 2,831 votes to Beck's 1,527, a 1,304 vote difference.
“Lizzy Beck had an impressive showing with an important platform,” Greene said Tuesday night. “I was glad to see her center the issues of race, equity and inclusion.
“I am looking forward to continuing the work of the School Committee, and I am honored to have the trust of the majority of voters.”
Jose Constantine and Julia Bowen will take the two open four-year seats representing Williamstown. Bowen was the top vote-getter in both towns, garnering 949 votes in Lanesborough for a total of 3,430. Constantine polled 557 in Lanesborough for a total vote of 2,168. Jude Higdon-Topaz got 327 votes in Lanesborough despite dropping out of the race.
Lanesborough resident Michelle Johnson, facing no opposition for a vacant four-year seat, earned 1,329 votes in Lanesborough.
Lanesborough's turnout was 79 percent, or 1,887 of the 2,386 registered voters casting ballots.
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — With the larger of the regional school district's two towns reporting, incumbent Carolyn Greene was on track Tuesday to retain her seat on the Mount Greylock Regional School District.
The unofficial vote tally in Williamstown when the polls closed gave the town to Greene by a margin of 2,072-991 over challenger Elisabeth Beck.
Lanesborough, which in 2018 had about half as many votes as Williamstown, had not reported its votes as of midnight.
Greene, who was looking to finish the last two years of a four-year seat she was appointed to fill after a resignation, was involved in the only contested race in the district.
While it appeared likely she would retain her post, three newcomers were elected to the seven-member regional school committee in unopposed races.
Lanesborough resident Michelle Johnson faced no opposition in her quest to fill a vacant four-year seat.
The ballot also had two four-year seats for Williamstown residents. Three candidates were on the ballot for those two seats, but one, Jude Higdon-Topaz, announced his withdrawal from the race and asked his supporters to back Jose Constantine.
In Williamstown, Constantine received 1,611 votes, and Julia Bowen was the top vote-getter with 2,481 votes. Higdon-Topaz, despite pulling out of the race, received 570 votes in his hometown.
In addition to the three newcomers elected on Tuesday, the School Committee will have another new face when it meets later this month. Last week, Lanesborough resident Curtis Elfenbein was appointed to serve the last two years on an unexpired term following a resignation.
Williamstown saw a turnout of about 76 percent, with 3,656 ballots returned from the town's 4,826 registered voters.
Three-quarters of Williamstown's 3,656 ballots came in before election day.
Town Clerk Nicole Pedercini reported that the town received 74 absentee ballots and a combination of mail-in and early in-person votes that totaled 2,715.
Pedercini said she and her poll workers processed the 2,789 early votes by about 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
The presidential ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took Williamstown by a margin of 3,088-487, about 86 percent of the vote going Democratic in the reliably "blue" town.
Williamstown voted yes on public question No. 1, the Right to Repair question, by a vote of 2,614-807. The town voters also supported ranked-choice voting, voting yes on question No. 2 by a margin of 2,228-1,226.
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