The City Election is Charlestown featured a slow day of voting, but any excitement absent during the day was made up for at midnight – when the final spot on the at-large ballot became contested between candidates Julia Mejia of Dorchester and Alejandra St. Guillen of West Roxbury.
The candidates were separated by only 10 votes at the end of the night, with Mejia on top and St. Guillen calling for a recount.
The excitement slowed up the release of ward and precinct results from the City’s Election Department, making it impossible to determine who won and lost at the neighborhood level.
By press time on Wednesday, the detailed results hadn’t been released.
Citywide, Councilor Michelle Wu topped the ticket with 41,616 votes. With a strong campaign, Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George claimed second place for the first time in her career, garnering 34,054 votes. Councilor Michael Flaherty had a solid third-place finish with 33,242 votes.
The fourth place spot was contested, with Mejia having 22,464 votes and St. Guillen at 22,454 votes.
Incumbent Althea Garrison fell to seventh place.
A popular candidate in Charlestown, Erin Murphy, finished sixth citywide with 16,843 votes.
In District 1, Councilor Lydia Edwards was unopposed, but still garnered 4,397 votes in the district.
In a statement, Edwards said she was ready to embark on her second term with her constituents.
“It is my great honor to be re-elected and to continue serving residents of Charlestown, East Boston and the North End,” she wrote. “Bostonians clearly spoke yesterday, across the city, that our government must act on critical challenges like housing, transportation, climate change, addiction, and economic justice while ensuring all communities are part of the political processes that shape our lives.
“Between now and the new year, I will be working to advance legislation to address the housing crisis and combat bias and discrimination, advocating for our community in major development projects, and continuing to address every letter, call and email that comes our way to ensure people in Boston’s District One enjoy quality of life and a responsive government,” she continued.
In a bit of a surprising move, a non-binding ballot question asked voters citywide if they wanted to change the name of Dudley Square in Roxbury to the name Nubian Square. The move had been made due to the Colonial Gov. Dudley having been involved in the slave trade, and the fact that the Square is the hub of the African American community.
However, voters rejected the idea soundly, voting against the change 28,763 to 24,207.