With all of the Nomination Papers now certified, City Clerk Sergio Cornelio said there will likely be five Preliminary Election contests on Sept. 21 for voters in the City – including three citywide offices and two ward seats.
The last date and time to turn in Nomination Papers for certification was on Friday, July 23, and Cornelio said that everyone that wanted to run and turned in papers was properly certified.
That meant that the Council at-large race and the School Committee at-Large races – which were still in the balance last week – were headed to the Preliminary Ballot. They join the Mayoral Preliminary and races in Council Ward 4 and School Committee Ward 6. That will hold true unless someone that has qualified withdraws from the race or there is an objection to Nomination signatures, which must be done by Aug. 10.
“It is going to be an exciting Preliminary,” said Cornelio. “Most of the City will have three races on the ballot and Ward 4 and Ward 6 will have four positions to vote for. I’ve seen Preliminaries for mayor and for City Council and School Committee in Ward 2 a few times, but the most I’ve seen in my time is three Preliminaries at one time. In the older days, you saw that a lot in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Since then there has been no more than three at a time. It’s an interesting time.”
Cornelio said he also expects a great turnout in September as well, with the Preliminary featuring three mayoral candidates and several Council candidates that have already been very actively campaigning. Also, it will be one week after a large Boston mayoral Preliminary, so there will likely be a lot of election coverage in the news.
“I certainly expect 3,000 to 4,000 and maybe 5,000 to come out in the Preliminary,” he said. “I even think it could be a larger number depending on the get-out-the-vote and maybe put turnout at 5,500 voters. It looks like the mayoral candidates and the city council candidates are campaigning vigorously and are on the ground and that will help increase interest in the election.”
Cornelio said they will once-again have mail in voting for the Preliminary and for the General Election on Nov. 2. The state Legislature is expected to approve an extension of last year’s format of mail-in voting any day now, and that extension goes until Dec. 15. Though it hasn’t officially been approved, Cornelio said his office is proceeding as if the approval will be in place for Sept. 21.
“We will be doing mail-in voting and not just absentees,” he said. “There will be no excuse necessary, but just mail-in ballots like we did last year. We expect the extension to be approved any day now so we’re going forward on it and just waiting to see how it will all work out logistically…Things are evolving and we’re preparing.”
The candidates certified for the mayoral Preliminary are:
•Councilor Gerly Adrien, 15 Cumberland St.
•Councilor Fred Capone, 383 Broadway
•Mayor Carlo DeMaria, 75 Abbott Ave.
The certified candidates for at-large Council Preliminary are:
•Angelmarie DiNunzio, 78 Hancock St.
•Councilor Michael Marchese, 91 Elsie St.
•Councilor Richard Dell Isola, 13 Griswold St.
•James Mastrocola, 56 Preston St.
•Stephanie Smith, 15 Mansfield St.
•James LaVecchio, 59 Oliver St.
•School Committeeman Allen Panarese, 35 Wolcott St.
•Ken Giannelli, 44 Winslow St.
•Councilor John Hanlon, 173 Main St.
•Irene Cardillo, 25 Rosedale St.
•Guerline Alcy, 77 Walnut St.
The certified candidates for the School Committee at-Large Preliminary are:
•Margaret Cornelio, 43 Luke Rd.
•School Committeewoman Cynthia Sarnie, 30 Forest Ave.
•School Committeewoman Samantha Lambert, 20 Pierce Ave.
•Robert Santacroce, 57 Englewood Ave.
•Berardino D’Onofrio, 44 Kelvin St.
•School Committeeman Joe LaMonica, 14 Lawrence St.
•Jenny Montresor, 24 Harley Ave.
The certified candidates for the Ward 4 Council Preliminary are:
•Councilor Jimmy Tri Le, 41 Westover St.
•Benjamin Murray, 30 Waverly Ave.
•Holly Garcia, 688 Broadway
The certified candidates for the Ward 6 School Committee seat are:
•School Committeeman Tom Abruzzese, 18 Peirce Ave.
•Catherine Tomassi Hicks, 9 Oakes St.
•Councilor Michael McLaughlin, 120 Tremont St.
There are several other races that won’t appear on the ballot until the Nov. 2 General Election, as they didn’t have enough candidate to trigger a Preliminary. Those races include:
WARD 1 COUNCIL
•Councilor Wayne Matewsky, 86 Lewis St.
WARD 2 COUNCIL
•Councilor Stephanie Martins, 59 Lexington St.
WARD 3 COUNCIL
•Councilor Anthony DiPierro, 51 Sycamore St.
•Darren Costa, 143 Elm St.
WARD 5 COUNCIL
•Councilor Rosa DiFlorio, 26 Dyer Ave.
•Vivian Nguyen, 75 Linden St.
WARD 6 COUNCIL
•Al Lattanzi, 57 Peirce Ave.
•Rose Pietrantonio, 45 Alfred St.
SCHOOL COMM. WARD 1
•School Committeewoman Millie Cardello, 27 Ferry St.
SCHOOL COMM. WARD 2
•Jason Marcus, 133 Dartmouth St.
•Cady Steinberg, 139 Fremont St.
SCHOOL COMM. WARD 3
•Jeanne Cristiano, 53 Abbot Ave.
•Samantha Hurley, 21 Freeman Ave.
SCHOOL COMM. WARD 4
•School Committeewoman Dana Murray, 30 Waverly Ave.
•Michael Mangan, 104 Walnut St.
SCHOOL COMM. WARD 5
•School Committeeman Marcony Almeida Barros, 105 Bradford St.
New Election Commissioner
City Clerk Sergio Cornelio reported this week that long-time Election Dept. staffer Danielle Pietrantonio has been hired as the new Election Commissioner.
Pietrantonio will still operate under Clerk Cornelio, but will coordinate the upcoming election and all of the candidate activities. She was promoted within the Department, he said.
Last year, there was no Election Commissioner in place for the Presidential and State Representative contests, and the duties fell on Cornelio to carry out. This time around, the Council had been adamant that the City get an Election Commissioner in place prior to September so that the contests would run smoothly.