Election season has begun

Updated March 4

Town elections are quickly approaching on Martha’s Vineyard, and the deadline to pull papers has come and gone in some towns. 

Among the noticeable vacancies across the Island, Gail Barmakian has announced she will not be seeking re-election to the select board in Oak Bluffs after some 15 years; Jim Malkin in Chilmark is stepping down at the end of his third term on the town’s select board; and longtime Edgartown select board member Michael Donaroma is facing a challenger.

There are also contested races for the town clerk position in Oak Bluffs, openings for town moderator positions in multiple towns, and the usual contested races on planning boards.

Edgartown

Edgartown will be holding town elections on April 10, and the deadline to return nomination papers has passed. 

There are only two contested races in Edgartown this year. Glen Searle and Walter Alexander Morrison are challenging longtime incumbent Michael Donaroma for a select board seat. Meanwhile, Edgartown planning board chair Michael Jay Shalett is being challenged by Taylor Clifford Pierce.

Oak Bluffs

Oak Bluffs will be holding town elections on April 10, and the deadline to return nomination papers has passed. 

Gail Barmakian will not be running for re-election, leaving her seat uncontested for Sean Patrick Debettencourt. 

However, Barmakian is running for the town clerk position against Benjamin Robert Clark and Amy Lee Del Toro. 

Contested races in Oak Bluffs include a health board seat, where Sherry Countryman is challenging incumbent James Butterick. Triva C.T. Emery is running against Dana Elizabeth Hughes for a parks commissioner seat, and Peter Lowell Hart will run against Julia Keefe for a seat on the wastewater commission. Keefe had previously taken the wastewater commission to court over a decision it made against her shop.

Tisbury

Tisbury will be holding town elections on May 13, and the deadline to return nomination papers is March 25.

John Cahill is running again for the select board, and has no challengers so far. 

Meanwhile, John F. Schilling is running to be the town moderator for a one-year term. Donald Rose, previously elected as town moderator in 2023, resigned earlier this year. Deborah Medders, a longtime town moderator who chose not to run in 2023, was appointed as interim town moderator. 

Seats on the board of assessors and the board of health will be contested. David Dandridge, assessors’ board chair, is being challenged by Amelia C. Tierney. Israel Ziegenhorn and George A. Santos Jr. are running for an empty health board seat. 

Mary Bernadette Budinger-Cormie, a critic of the 97 Spring St. project in Vineyard Haven and an M.V. commissioner, is running uncontested for a seat on the Tisbury planning board.

Nobody has pulled papers for an open Tisbury School committee seat. 

Tisbury Town Clerk Hillary Conklin also said this will be the first year that the annual town meeting, scheduled for April 29, will return to the Tisbury School gymnasium since the school underwent construction. 

West Tisbury

In West Tisbury, the sole contested election is a three-year board of health position; Peter J. D’Angelo and Daniel James Sauer are competing.

Select board member Cynthia Mitchell is running uncontested for another three-year term.

For the planning board, incumbents Leah Smith and Amy M. Upton are running for re-election.

Voters will also encounter three ballot questions. The first is to approve a budget override of more than $1.6 million for the town’s operating budget. The second is to fund facilities for the Up-Island Regional School District, and the third is to allow funding for a feasibility study of the West Tisbury School.

No school committee spot is up for election in any up-Island town.

West Tisbury will hold elections on April 10. The deadline to return nomination papers has passed, and the ballot is available.

Chilmark

In Chilmark, Jim Malkin’s select board spot is up for election after he announced that he will not be seeking re-election. So far one resident, Matt Poole, a member of the town’s health board, has taken out papers for the three-year position.

Incumbent town moderator Janet Weidner has pulled papers for her re-election, and Ann Wallace is running to remain on the town planning board.

Chilmark town elections are on April 30, from noon to 8 pm. Residents must submit nomination papers by March 12 at 5 pm.

Aquinnah

In Aquinnah, select board member Gary Haley’s spot is up for election; he confirmed to The Times on Tuesday that he has pulled papers.

There are also open spots for town moderator, a member of the health board, a member of the planning board, a planning board associate, and a library trustee.

So far, town clerk Kayla Darcy said that only one person has taken papers; Gerald Green is running for the health board.

Town elections are on May 13, and close at 7 pm. Residents looking to run must obtain nomination papers at the town clerk’s office and submit them by March 27 at 5 pm. 

A previous version of this story stated the date to return nomination papers had passed in Tisbury.