Write-in candidate drums up win in low-turnout election

NAHANT – Less than 10 percent of registered voters turned out for Saturday’s election, but it still resulted in one surprise when a write-in candidate came out a winner.Wendy Kessler-Cody laughed when she learned she was the town’s new constable after 10 residents wrote her name in for the position that had no candidate.Town Clerk Margaret Barile noted that two positions, assessor and constable, had no candidate. Kessler-Cody said she and her husband stood out front and handed out stickers asking people to write her in for constable.”We told them they couldn’t use the sticker, but they could write me in,” she said.Kessler-Cody said she decided to run simply because she likes the work.”I worked for the Essex County Sheriff’s Office for five years, and I did my undergraduate in criminal justice,” she said. “I just like that type of work.”The assessor position picked up 32 write-in votes, but a candidate needs at least five write-ins to win the seat, and no one person had five votes, Barile said.That seat will have to be appointed, she added.Kessler-Cody was not the only winner.Barile topped the ballot with 194 votes, Dave Conlin was elected moderator with 191 votes, Christine Stevens picked up 178 votes, giving her a second term as a library trustee, Lissa Keane and Michael Flynn kept their seats on School Committee with 175 and 153 votes, respectively, and F. Thom Donahue and Calvin Hastings will spend five more years each on the Planning Board having garnered 169 and 160 votes, respectively.Conlin noted that it was a little disappointing that with 2,533 registered voters, only 214 came out to cast a vote.Editor’s note: Reporter Chris Stevens and Christine Stevens, the library trustee, are the same person.