WARE — Voter turnout was light as some contests ran with opposition while others had no candidates at listed on the ballot for the April election.

Town Clerk Nancy Talbot reported 1,126 voters participated in the election either in person or by mail, that number is out of more than 7,700 registered voters in the town.

“I am not sure why the turnout was what it was as there were several contests with well qualified candidates,” she said. “Several offices did not have any candidates listed and fortunately that did prompt write in campaigns.”

At the end of the evening, John A. Desmond and Terrance W. Smith were chosen by voters to fill the two open Selectboard seats, receiving 620 and 622 seats, respectively, to fellow candidate Catherine Buelow-Cascio’s 592 votes.

Keith Kruckas and Caitlyn McCarthy, who both currently serve on the board, took out nomination papers indicating their intention to run again but neither returned the documents, leaving both their names off the ballot.

Desmond has served previously as a member of the Selectboard as did Buelow-Cascio, while Smith currently serves on the Finance Committee.

Buelow-Cascio, whose husband John currently serves as a Selectboard member, expressed disappointment but echoed her love for and commitment to the town and said her hopes had been to offer more time and attention to the community by working alongside her husband.

“I was really looking forward to giving the town more by not pulling from each other as we would have been doing it together,” she said. “I didn’t see any negatives and I guess maybe I was blinded by that.”
Incumbent School Committee member Julie Slatery will retain her seat, joined by Michael Lewis-James Dubois with respective voting totals of 591 and 579, closely beating fellow candidate Melissa Ann Whitham’s 554 votes.

Candidates running unopposed who retained their positions include Moderator Kathleen Cooloumbe, Board of Assessors members Devin M. Peterson and Park Commissioner Kimberly E. Swarts.

Donna L. Rucki ran unopposed for a three-year term on the Board of Health while Cemetery Commissioner Thomas Clark received 94 write-in votes after indicating weeks ago his interest in the position.

Planning Board positions were filled by Elizabeth M. Hancock, who ran unopposed for the three-year term, and Shane Miller, who received 88 write-in votes to challenger Kirk Brown’s 39 votes for the five-year term.

“The write in winner for the Housing Authority was Denise Blodgett who also took it upon herself to garner interest from voters to write her name in,” Talbot said. “Local elections are the basis for town governing bodies to represent and act on residents of their community, so it is always important to have good voter participation.”