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Winchester News reviewed precinct-level election results from every annual town election since 2014 — 13 years of data covering turnout, ballot questions, Select Board races, School Committee contests and Planning Board results — and compared them against the March 21 preliminary numbers.
The 2026 results have not yet been certified by Town Clerk MaryEllen Marshall, but are not expected to change materially. What follows are takeaways from that review.
1) The override was the main event, and almost nobody sat it out.
Of 4,876 ballots cast, 4,823 voters weighed in on the override question — just 53 left it blank. Compare that with the Select Board race, where 913 voters (18.7%) didn’t bother filling in a choice, and School Committee, where 869 (17.8%) left that line empty.
Whatever else brought people to the polls, almost every one of them came with an opinion on the $11.5 million question.
2) Highest raw turnout in at least 13 years.
The 4,876 ballots cast March 21 surpassed every annual town election going back to 2014. The next closest was 2019, when 4,773 voters showed up for a contested Select Board race and a ballot question. The override drove people out.
3) Precinct 4 lost the override by two votes — 333 to 331.
Two voters. In a precinct where Select Board Chair Michelle Prior won 420-145 and John Bellaire edged out Heather von Mering 276-271, the override landed on a knife’s edge. No other precinct was remotely that close.
If the yes campaign had knocked on one more block in Precinct 4, the overall margin might have been 289 instead of 293, but the symbolism of a two-vote loss in a single precinct captures how tight the fault line was.
4) Precinct 5 was the epicenter of the no vote — and the most independent-minded precinct on the ballot.
Precinct 5 rejected the override 397-224 (63.9% no), the widest margin of any precinct, and that 173-vote gap alone accounted for more than half the overall deficit.
But those same voters gave newcomer Amy Beliveau her best result of any precinct, outpolling even top vote-getter Keri Layton (285 to 228).
Precinct 5 didn’t vote as a bloc. It voted against spending and for new faces simultaneously.
5) Precinct 3 was the yes coalition’s anchor — and it wasn’t enough.
The precinct delivered the strongest override support (59.2%), Prior’s highest raw vote total (463) and Bellaire’s widest margin (+82).
It’s historically one of Winchester’s most active precincts. But its 133-vote yes margin on the override couldn’t offset Precinct 5’s 173-vote no margin alone, let alone the deficits in Precincts 6, 7 and 8.
6) Michelle Prior’s 71.2% is the widest margin in a competitive Select Board race in at least 13 years.
Prior carried all eight precincts. Her weakest showing was Precinct 1, where she still won 63.5%.
For context, the previous most decisive head-to-head Select Board result was 2014, when Stephen Powers beat Douglas Marmon with 53.7%. Goluboff beat Powers in 2017 with just 52.6%.
Prior’s dominance wasn’t just a win — it was a statement that no recent Select Board challenger has come close to matching.
7) Bellaire swept all eight precincts for School Committee — but his margins ranged from razor-thin to commanding.
Bellaire beat von Mering by just five votes in Precinct 4 (276-271) and by 14 in Precinct 5 (249-235), but ran away with Precinct 8 by 87 votes (224-137). His overall 54% is solid but not overwhelming.
8) The dormant middle of the electorate — roughly 10,000 registered voters — didn’t show up even for the override.
Winchester has 15,115 registered voters. Election Day’s 4,876 ballots mean more than 10,000 registered residents stayed home for a vote on an $11.5 million tax increase.
Even in the highest-turnout election in over a decade, two-thirds of the electorate sat it out. That silent majority is the backdrop against which every override margin — win or lose — should be read.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
