To submit election-related announcements, click on image or email [email protected]. These are the only acceptable methods of sending campaign news.
Voters in every Haverhill ward will find ballots to narrow the field of candidates for Haverhill mayor from five to two during today’s preliminary election.
Only two of the city’s seven wards, however, will find anything else on their ballot. Voters in Ward 4 are asked to narrow the numbers of candidates for City Council and School Committee, while those in Ward 7 will whittle down the number of choices for their School Committee representative.
Residents are asked to choose a candidate to succeed outgoing mayor James J. Fiorentini. Their choices are, in alphabetical order, Melinda E. Barrett, Debra M. Campanile, Guy E. Cooper, George Eleftheriou, and Scott W. Wood Jr. Haverhill City Clerk Kaitlin M. Wright expects the definite change in the corner office of City Hall to attract voters’ attention.
“Because we have an open mayoral seat for the first time in 20 years, I’m thinking that we will have more people. A normal preliminary, we might get five of six thousand people versus a general election where we may just touch 11,000 so I’m thinking 7,000 would be a good in-between,” she said.
Haverhill has 48,000 registered voters, but only a fraction typically turns out. The relatively small numbers of ballots cast by early and mail-in voters don’t suggest any marked improvement. Only 297 residents chose to vote early at City Hall last week and, as of Friday, only 1,875 mailed in ballots out of 5,200 requested.
“I would expect that if people are requesting mail-in ballots, they would make use of them,” said Wright. She suggests anyone still planning to use ballots previously mailed to them to bring them to her City Hall office or drop them in the special box on the Main Street side of City Hall. She explained it is too late to put them in the mail and ballots must be received by 8 p.m. In addition, she notes, those working with mail-in ballot must follow instructions carefully since ballots will be rejected that are not signed or not placed in the correct envelope.
Voters in Ward 4 have more work to do than residents of other wards. They are asked to choose a ward councilor from the field of incumbent Melissa J. Lewandowski, Kenneth E. Quimby or Craig Lambert. They must also choose a ward School Committee member where two of those running are also seeking other elected offices. Candidates are Mikaela Lalumiere, Wood, Courtney Thomas and Fred A. Simmons. Besides Wood also seeking the job of mayor, Simmons appears on November’s final election ballot as a candidate for one of four at-large City Council seats.
Polls are open today from 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
| Preliminary Election Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023 |
|---|
| Campaign |
| (Names listed in ballot order under each campaign) |
| Mayor |
| Barrett, Melinda E. |
| Wood, Scott W. Jr. |
| Cooper, Guy E. |
| Campanile, Debra |
| Eleftheriou, George |
| City Council Ward 4 |
| Lewandowski, Melissa J. |
| Quimby, Kenneth E. |
| Lambert, Craig |
| School Committee Ward 4 |
| Lalumiere, Mikaela |
| Wood, Scott W. Jr. |
| Thomas, Courtney |
| Simmons, Fred A. |
| School Committee Ward 7 |
| Grannemann, Thomas |
| Downer, Edward |
| Rogers, Hunter |