FRAMINGHAM, MA – Today was a historic day for the town of Framingham Massachusetts as voters cast more than twice as many votes to turn back a proposed charter that would have transformed the largest town in the state into just another medium sized city.
Announcing the election results in a press conference held in the Ablondi Room of the Memorial Building, Town Clerk George King declared the charter ballot question had lost by a 30 percent to 70 percent margin. At 9:15pm, with all votes in, King’s unverified tally showed that 11,892 had voted on the ballot question, and that only 3647 were YES votes, while 8245 voters sent a loud and clear NO!
Unless contested, the percentage of NO to YES votes not only strikes down the proposed charter in this election, but also eliminates any chance that the same charter could be put before voters in the next election, due to a rule which would have allowed the issue to live another year had it gotten 35 percent of the vote.
Many who feel there’s a historic value to the claim of nearly three centuries under a town meeting form of government are relieved that there isn’t much chance of Framingham becoming a city before the Town’s 300th Anniversary on June 5, 2000.
Outside the Ablondi Room, Town Manager Russell Marcoux was congratulated on his own personal victory that came with the charter’s defeat, his position would have been eliminated under the proposed city government.
In another closely watched race, candidate for selectmen John Kanh (5959 votes), defeated opponent Charlie Sisitstky (4986 votes).
Since the town election is almost completely computerized; from the bar coded voter lists, to the optical-scanned ballots, it was possible to announce the races which do not involve write-in candidates in a matter of minutes.
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