Election results on Martha’s Vineyard mirrored statewide results for the most part in Tuesday’s primary election, which saw light turnout across the Island and the state.
In the race for the Democratic nomination for governor, Martha Coakley carried Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury. Donald Berwick won in Aquinnah, Chilmark, and West Tisbury. Both candidates have Vineyard ties. Ms. Coakley spent summers working on the Island earlier in her life, and Mr. Berwick owns a home in Chilmark. Ms. Coakley received a total of 802 votes on the Island. Mr. Berwick received 688 votes.
Statewide, Ms. Coakley won with 42 percent of the vote. Steve Grossman was second with 37 percent, and Mr. Berwick was third with 21 percent.
Charles Baker easily won the Republican nomination for governor statewide, and he was the overwhelming choice of local Republicans, with 354 votes. His opponent, Tea Party candidate Mark Fisher, got 96 votes.
As voters did statewide, Islanders offered strong support to women on the ballot. Maura Healey trounced Warren Tolman 1,375 to 428 in the race for the democratic nomination for attorney general.
In a tight race for treasurer, Island voters favored Deborah Goldberg, with 724 votes, to move on to the general election, over her two male challengers. Barry Finegold was second with 508 votes, and Thomas Conroy was third with 398 votes in the three-way race.
Martha’s Vineyard voters made a contrary choice in the close race for the Republican nomination for representative in Congress. Local Republicans chose Mark Alliegro, a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, over John Chapman, 168 to 136, but it was Chapman who prevailed statewide to advance to the general election against Democratic incumbent William Keating.
Three incumbents earned spots on the November 4 general election ballot as Democratic nominees to the Dukes County Commission. John Alley of West Tisbury was the top vote getter with 1,084 votes. Leon Brathwaite of West Tisbury was second with 950 votes, and David Holway of Edgartown was third with 880 votes. They were the only candidates named on the primary ballot. Incumbent Christine Todd of Oak Bluffs ran fourth with a write-in campaign, winning a handful of write-in votes in both primaries.
Other candidates are expected to run as independent (unenrolled) candidates, and will appear on the ballot in November. The seven county commissioners all run for re-election every two years.
Voter participation was down slightly from 2010, the last off-year statewide primary where no presidential election was at stake. This year an average of 18.7 percent of registered voters went to the polls in the six Island towns. In 2010, 20.3 percent of registered voters participated in the primary election.
Aquinnah proved to have the most one-sided electorate. Of the 75 voters who went to the polls on Tuesday, not a single voter requested a Republican primary ballot.
