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Westfield voters support Republican candidates in national, state elections
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Westfield voters support Republican candidates in national, state elections

According to unofficial results, 19,821 voters – representing 66.69% of registered voters – cast their ballots in Westfield on November 5.

Former President Donald Trump led Westfield by 10,016 votes to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 9,135 votes. The winner of the presidential election had not been determined as of press time.

In the senatorial race, John Deaton won Westfield with 10,560 votes to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s 8,770 votes. Warren won the state, however, with 60.3 percent of the vote, or 742,419 votes, compared to Deaton’s 39.7 percent, or 489,565 votes.

Although Westfield favored the Republican candidates for president and senator, the majority of the town elected incumbent U.S. Representative Richard Neal by 10,198 votes. Nadia Milleron received 8,237 votes. As of press time, the winner of this race had not yet been determined.

State Representative Kelly Pease, who has been serving Hampden’s 4th District since 2020, was re-elected to the seat with every precinct voting in Westfield. Pease received 10,609 Westfield votes, while his challenger, Westfield City Councilor Bridget Matthews-Kane, received 7,045.

Incumbent Cheryl Coakley-Rivera won Westfield with 10,095 votes to challenger Bob Collamore’s 7,096. As of press time, the overall winner had not yet been announced.

Tara Jacobs ran unopposed for Board of Governors and received 13,026 votes counted in her favor in Westfield.

Running unopposed, Sen. John Velis received 15,345 votes in Westfield.

State Rep. Michael Finn, also running unopposed, received 1,006 votes.

Hampden County Clerk Laura Gentile received 13,465 votes – running unopposed.

While statewide results were not available at press time for any of the ballot questions, a majority of Westfield voters, about 12,915, chose yes on question one. A yes vote gives the state auditor the power to audit the state Senate and House of Representatives on Beacon Hill. A negative vote would not change the auditor’s authority. There were 5,623 votes for this question.

Westfield voters also favored an affirmative vote on question two — which would remove the MCAS exam as a high school graduation requirement. Some 12,814 Westfield voters chose yes, with 6,502 voters opting for a no vote.

The third question, if approved, would allow ride-sharing drivers like Uber and Lyft to form unions. In Westfield, no votes were cast by 9,526 to 9,059.

An affirmative vote on question four would allow people over the age of 21 in Massachusetts to grow and use psychedelics and create a commission to regulate them. A no vote would keep psychedelics illegal in Massachusetts. On the fourth question, Westfield voters cast 11,594 no votes and 7,454 yes votes.

The last statewide question on the ballot involved raising the minimum wage for tipped workers in Massachusetts. An affirmative vote would raise the minimum hourly wage an employer would have to pay a tipped worker up to the full state minimum wage over a 5-year period. Businesses would then pool tips and distribute them to non-managerial workers. A negative vote would leave the law unchanged. In Westfield, a strong majority of 13,146 voters chose no and 5,936 voters chose yes.

Finally, ballot question six was an initiative of the Massachusetts Campaign for Single-Payer Health Care, or Mass-Care, an organization that has been working to pass legislation establishing a single-payer system in Massachusetts for the past 15 years. This was a non-binding question, with the verdict being a suggestion to their representative, Pease, about supporting a single-player statewide health care system. In Westfield, 9,157 yes votes were cast to 7,568 no votes.

Results for Southwick were not available at press time. These results will be published in Thursday’s edition of The Westfield News.