The Town of Natick has released unofficial results for Tuesday’s election, which saw incumbent School Committee members Catherine Brunell and Shai Fuxman handily defend their seats in the only contested race for town-wide positions. They were selected on roughly 80% and 77% of the ballots, respectively. Both ran campaigns focused on responsible budgeting and supporting all students, and now are set to serve new three-year terms on the seven-person body.

James Roberts, whose campaign focused on making changes to Natick Public Schools gender policies and was supported by the Parental Rights Natick group, placed third as a first-time candidate (18.7% of the vote). Past School Committee member Dr. Donna McKenzie finished fourth with 9.5% of the vote based on unofficial results.

The town didn’t release unofficial results until after midnight on Tuesday, whereas numbers were shared by 11pm the past two years. Some campaigns posted unofficial numbers on social media earlier, allowing winners to celebrate.

Brunell shared a message the day before the election that “This is no ordinary local election–the future of our schools is at stake tomorrow and there are stark differences between the candidates in this race…”

After unofficial results began trickling out, Fuxman posted on social media Tuesday night: “Thank you Natick for coming out to vote today, for putting your trust in our hands, and for allowing us to go back to School Committee to focus on our children’s education, wellbeing, and sense of belonging.”

All four candidates’ supporters braved raw conditions on Tuesday to hold signs and encourage voters to cast ballots for their candidates at polling locations across town.

Voting was easier for some than others due to issues the town had distributing mail-in ballots to those who requested them. The word on the street was that not enough ballots were printed, and by the time more were, they arrived later than they should have.

The town issued a general statement: “The Town of Natick is committed to running fair and equitable elections that ensure representation & opportunities to vote for all Natick registered voters. Town staff did experience some unforeseen hurdles during this year’s Annual Town Election. Town staff is currently focused on completing the process to tally official election results.”

Some residents, including Select Board Chair Bruce Evans (as he wrote on social media), didn’t receive their ballots until Monday, resulting in communications being shared about strategies for still getting ballots in on time. The Town Clerk’s office got an earful from others by phone and in-person regarding late-arriving ballots, which presumably played a role in the later-than-usual posting of unofficial results. The Secretary of State has also been made aware of the situation (elections@sec.state.ma.us).

About twice as many ballots (7,087) were cast as in last year’s local election in which the Select Board contest was the one to watch. Last year 14.1% of registered voters cast ballots; this year, about 28% of registered voters cast their ballots.

This year’s Select Board election lacked drama: Linda Wollschlager, who vacated her seat on the Finance Committee, ran unopposed to join the Board. Paul Joseph chose not to run for another term.

The only contested race on some ballots other than School Committee was for Town Meeting members in Precinct 7, where seven candidates ran for six open seats. Incumbent Patricia Sciarra, a leading conservative voice in town, was not re-elected based on the unofficial tally.

There were no ballot questions, unlike last year, when Natick voters chose to change the Natick Town Clerk position from elected to appointed.

New Clerk Lynn Kelly has had her hands full during this election, which even before the mail-in ballot issue arose was marred by the omission of the Associate Planning Board position on ballots, and will result in a special election later this year to rectify that.

We did the rounds at polling places, including the Community-Senior Center and Morse Institute Library.