PROVINCETOWN — According to a preliminary tally of the May 14 annual town election ballots, select board incumbent Leslie Sandberg has been elected to a second term on the board with 736 votes, 80 percent of the 924 voters who turned out this year.
She defeated challenger Jere Miller, who garnered 122 votes, or 13 percent of the votes cast. Fifty-three voters left their ballots blank, while 13 voters chose a write-in candidate.
Three candidates ran for two seats on the school committee, and Terese Nelson, who had served three terms on the committee from 2000 to 2009, came out on top with 524 votes.
Incumbent Ngina Lythcott, running for a fourth term on the committee, won 493 votes and was also elected. Sean Ganas, running for a committee seat for the first time, got 410 votes.
Only five people cast a write-in vote for school committee, but there were 416 ballot lines left blank in that race.
The town’s two Proposition 2½ override measures both passed by large margins.
Question 1, a budget override that allows the town to permanently increase the total tax levy by $373,342 to help fund the school’s expanded Early Learning Center for infants, toddlers, and three- and four-year-olds, passed with 69 percent of the vote.
Question 2, a debt exclusion measure that allows the town to temporarily increase the tax levy to support payments on a 15-year $11.7-million bond to finance improvements at town-owned Motta Field, passed with 62 percent of the vote.
Both measures had required a two-thirds majority of town meeting voters, but only a simple majority of town election voters, to pass. Voters at the April 1 town meeting had endorsed both measures by large margins that did not require a count.
Nonetheless, it is a frequent occurrence on the Outer Cape for override measures to pass by large margins at town meeting and either barely pass, or fail outright, at the ballot box. Three years ago, Provincetown’s voters had endorsed a $136,000 override to fund a diversity, equity, and inclusion office almost unanimously at town meeting, but the measure passed with only 53 percent of the vote at town election.
According to the town meeting warrant, the Motta Field project would have an annual tax impact of $23.52 per $100,000 of assessed property value, or about $180.82 per year for 15 years on a median-priced $910,000 home.
The town had held multiple public engagement sessions in the last two years to gather input on the project. The price tag of $11.7 million was more than the town had expected, Town Manager Alex Morse told the select board in February, but an effort to trim the project would have removed several of the most popular parts of the plan — including the outdoor exercise area, the playground, a community plaza, and a picnic area — and still carried a cost of about $9.2 million, Morse told the board.
Faced with that choice, the select board and Morse decided to pitch voters on the original project instead.
There were three uncontested races on Tuesday in which incumbents were reelected: Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar, charter compliance commission member Julia Perry, and housing authority member Donna Skezer.
There were also three races with no listed candidate, meaning five or more write-in votes would be sufficient to win election, according to town clerk Liz Paine.
Robert O’Malley received 17 write-in votes for a three-year term on the housing authority, making him eligible to take the seat. Clayton Nottleman won 22 write-in votes for a seat on the board of library trustees, and Laura Guadazno won 21, according to preliminary returns.
