Brookline Election Results: Select Board Incumbent Ousted

BROOKLINE, MA —Brookline elected its first female Town Moderator in recent memory and a challenger ousted a Select Board incumbent during town elections Tuesday.

Kate Poverman will take over for Town Meeting Moderator Sandy Gadsby, who announced ahead of the election that he would step down after some three decades leading the town legislative branch's biannual meeting.

"Kate, like so many in this community, cares so much about Brookline and is honored to be the next Moderator," her campaign manager Rebecca Bueno said. "She is ready to get to work, and is committed to making sure Town Meeting has the benefit of sound information and diverse perspectives, and is a welcoming place to all."

In the Select Board race, Chair Bernard Greene kept his seat and Town Meeting member Miriam Aschkenasy became its newest member. The pair beat incumbent Nancy Heller and two other candidates.

"Today Justice, Inclusivity, and Good Governance won a foot in the door of Brookline politics," Aschkenasy said in a statement. "Now we must throw open that door, invite everyone to join us and make more room at the table."

Newcomer Aschkenasy not only earned enough votes to get a seat on the Select Board, she earned the most votes of the five candidates, beating out both incumbents — something that has not happened for more than a decade.

There were two ballot questions Tuesday:

• Question 1 (on whether Town Clerk should be appointed or elected): No
• Question 2 (an increase in property tax to fund preservation): Yes

A total of 18.7 percent, or 7,453, of the town's 39,790 registered voters cast ballots. That was a percentage point higher than turnout in 2020.

These are the results for key races Tuesday, with winners in bold:

Select Board:

• Miriam Aschkenasy: 3,518
• Bernard Greene: 3,315
• Nancy Heller: 3,171
• Zoe Lynn: 2,731
• Donelle O'Neal: 915

Town Moderator:

• Kate Poverman: 3,876
• Scott Ananian: 3,197

School Committee:

• Steven Ehrenberg: 3,738
• Valerie Frias: 2,582

See the unofficial results in more detail:

Watch Brookline's State Rep. Tommy Vitolo (who is also a Town Meeting Member) as he tallies the results on the town's cable access station.

Hand sanitizer, masks and rain

It was a slow morning at the polls. Many election officials attributed that to the rain and the availability of early and mail-in voting. Still, hundreds of people wearing masks and taking a pump of hand sanitizer showed up to cast ballots.

By 1 p.m., the halfway mark in the day, 3,659 of about 40,000 Brookline residents had voted, including early voters and mail-in ballots.

By 7 p.m., with just an hour left to vote the tally was up to 6,937, or 17.3 percent of voters.
To put that into context: Last year, 6,815, or 17.5 percent, of Brookline's registered voters cast ballots for the annual spring election.

• Brookline Election 2021: Who's Running, What To Know

But last year didn't seem as competitive as this year, said Town Meeting member Regina Frawley outside of Precinct 16 after she cast her ballot.

Frawley said she hoped between the mail-in ballots, early voting and day-of voting, turnout would be greater than last year.

Former Town Clerk Pat Ward often said that poor weather impacted voter turnout.

"It's rainy and cold," Frawley said.

At 11 a.m. there was no line, but a steady trickle of voters coming into Putterham Library. Some 153 people had cast ballots, including those who had voted early and those who had voted absentee.

"We don't have as many people this year," said Alice Gray, an election warden.

She said a small glitch in the voting machine prompted a call to the town clerk's office right when the polls opened.

"They sent a technician right away to come and fix it," she said.

Even when the machine went down, it had been smooth sailing, she added.

While the machine wasn't working properly, voters placed their ballots in a locked, black box. Those ballots will be tallied at the end of the day, she said.

"Everything is going smooth," Gray said. "Everything is working well."

At Precinct 4's polling location in Town Hall, election clerk Carol Deanow echoed that sentiment, noting it felt slow.

"Every once in a while, we'll get a couple of people," she said, adding she hoped it would pick up in the evening.

Jeffrey Nutting of the town clerk's office said there were no issues out of the ordinary as of midday across the polling locations.

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how.