Slater Takes Large Second Ward Win for First Place Victory

While Board of Education Vice President Julia Walker captured first place in three wards, a landslide in the second ward gave newcomer Mitch Slater the support he needed to capture first place in Tuesday's election.

A look at the numbers from each ward show Walker, who captured her third term taking first place by less than a hundred votes in the first, third and fourth wards with Slater taking second in those wards. BOE President Ginny Leiz finished third in the three wards and BOE member Richard Solomon finished fourth. Slater, Walker and Leiz won the three seats on the board.

In the second ward, Slater took an almost 400 vote win over Walker with Solomon coming in third. Leiz was fourth in the ward with Slater scoring an almost two to one victory over her in the ward.

The second ward, Slater's home base and home to Washington School, the center of last year's redistricting controversy, gave the newcomer 1,156 votes. Walker took 771 votes in the ward, while Solomon received 639 votes in the ward. Leiz came in with 596 votes in the second ward.Walker also resides in the second ward.

In the election districts making up the second ward, Slater captured first place in each district, including those voting at Washington School. Walker was a constant second place finisher, with Solomon taking third in all districts except for the fourth district in the ward at Wilson School, which voted in Leiz in third place.

In the first ward, Walker received 922 votes, Slater 911 votes, Leiz 842 votes and Solomon 780 votes. Solomon is a resident of the first ward.

In the combined district vote counts in the first ward, Walker won in the counts for the first, second, fourth and fifth districts, which voted at the library and Roosevelt. In the third, fifth and seventh districts, voting at Franklin School, Slater took first place. Slater and Leiz took second and third at the Roosevelt and library voting locations with Walker taking second at Franklin. At Franklin, Leiz and Solomon tied for third place.

The third ward showed the closest spread between the top three vote getters. Walker took 788 votes, Slater was second with 746 votes and Leiz received 738 votes. Solomon took 623 votes in the ward. Leiz lives in the third ward.

In the election districts making up the third ward, Walker was the first place vote getter in all but the fourth district at Edison School, which went with Slater. Walker did pull first in the second and third districts which vote at Edison. Slater pulled second in the districts won by Walker with the BOE veep taking second in the Slater won district. Leiz pulled third at the polling places with Solomon in fourth place.

In the fourth ward, site of the most competitive race in last year's Town Council election, Walker took 905 votes, Slater had 843 votes, Leiz received 827 votes and Solomon received 791 votes.

The Walker/Slater split continued in the fourth ward. Walker took first place at McKinley School and Jefferson School polling places. At the districts voting at Westfield High School, Slater took first place. The sole fourth ward district voting at Jefferson was the only to place Solomon in second place and Slater in third place. Leiz took fourth in the district. Walker finished second in the high school with Solomon in third. At McKinley, Slater finished second and Leiz third.

Walker carried absentee ballots cast in the election. She received 42 of the votes, with Slater coming in second with 38 absentees. Leiz was third amongst absentee voters with 31 votes with Solomon grabbing 27 absentee votes.