Wakefield Voters Showed Up For The Election Like They Rarely Do

WAKEFIELD, MA — More than 27 percent of registered voters turned out for the annual Town Election, a hefty showing driven largely by a much-discussed ballot question.

A tally of unofficial results show 5,375 of 19,831 registered voters cast a ballot. That equates to a 27.1 percent turnout; no turnout in at least the previous five Town Elections broke 20 percent.

The nonbinding ballot question of whether residents support keeping the Wakefield Warrior logo at the high school got 2,911 "Yes" votes and 2,337 "No" votes. Only two precincts voted in favor of dropping the logo — one by one vote and the other by two.

Read: Wakefield Voters Say Yes To Logo, Some New Faces

The School Committee already voted to retire the logo, though the referendum could give legs to those opposing the change. Still, there is not expected to be enough support on the new-look School Committee to reconsider the logo issue.

One of those new faces on the School Committee will be Ami Wall, who holds a 70-vote lead over incumbent Greg Liakos for a one-year term in the unofficial tally. The count was 2,475-2,405. Liakos told Patch he does not intend to seek a recount.

The tightest race on the ballot was for a five-year seat on the Planning Board. Theo Noell holds an 1,852-1,839 vote advantage over Joanne Scouler, a difference of just 13 votes. Scouler did not immediately respond to a question about whether she will seek a recount.

There are still a small number of ballots being hand-counted. Those totals are expected by the end of the day.

See the full unofficial results below.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Wakefield Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.