FALL RIVER — The unofficial numbers are in for the city’s municipal election and Mayor Paul Coogan and former mayor former district attorney Sam Sutter will face off in the city’s general election in November.
Coogan garnered 4,285 votes and Sutter garnered 2,156. Second-time mayoral candidate Michael Vandal received 326 votes.
In the City Council race 19 candidates in the preliminary election were narrowed down to 18 who will move forward. Joseph Salvador, who garnered 892 votes, will not be moving on to the general election. Incumbent Linda Pereira topped the City Council race with the most votes at 3,538.
Voter turnout low
Voter turnout was less than impressive today for the Fall River 2023 preliminary races for mayor and City Council.
At Tansey Elementary School, often considered one of the busiest polling places in the city with 2,788 registered voters, things were slow. A little after 6 p.m., Warden Nadia Paquette said only about 383 votes were cast and about 40 of those were early voting ballots.
Things were even quieter at One Government Center, where polling place 4C and 7B showed 123 and 88 votes cast respectively by 6:30 p.m.
“To be honest I kind of expected it to be relatively low voter turnout,” said Ryan Lyon, head of the city’s Election Commission.
Lyon said his office received 4,500 requests for early voting ballots, with 2,200 returned.
Saying he hoped to see about 18 percent of the electorate to come out, and was still holding out hope.
“The last time we had a preliminary for both the mayor and the City Council was in 2015 that had a 22 percent voter turnout.
“But I don’t think its going to be that way in this election,” said Lyon.
Live Results:Local Election Results
The names as they appear on ballot today in alphabetical order are: Alexander P. Silva, Gloria Saddler, Joseph (Joe) D. Camara *, Shawn E. Cadime *, Andrew J. Raposo *, Pamela S. Laliberte *, Gabriel “Boomer” Amaral, Joshua Teixeira, Ricky T. Tith, Paul B. Hart, Linda M. Pereira *, Cliff Ponte, Joseph Salvador, Laura Jean Washington *, Jordon James Silvia, Paulo J. Amaral, Michelle M. Dionne * Bob Pearson
Joseph Salvador will not be moving on to the general election.
What you need to know:Voter’s guide to Fall River’s primary election.
The preliminary election is coming up.Here’s how much money Fall River candidates have.
What about the School Committee race?
While candidates for mayor and City Council will be watching closely to see which one candidate will be knocked out of the general election today, the nine candidates for School Committee that do not have a preliminary challenge due to not enough candidates, ought to be hitting the campaign trail tomorrow in earnest for the lead up to November.
Up until last week there were 10 School Committee candidates, but attorney Rene Brown took herself out of the race last week.
The nine remaining candidates will be vying for six seats that includes incumbents Kevin Aguiar; Bobby Bailey; Michelle Larrivee; Shelli-Ann Pereira; and Sara Rodrigues.
Former School Committee member Thomas Khoury is attempting to make a comeback with additional challengers in the race being Warren Alves; Collin Dias; and Charles Chase.
