NAHANT — There is a seat on a town board guaranteed for every candidate whose name will be on the ballots town residents will cast on Saturday.
Voting begins in the main hall in Town Hall, 334 Nahant Road, at 7 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m.
Town Clerk Diane M. Dunfee, who is running unopposed for a third, one-year term, anticipates 10 to 15 percent of the town’s 2,834 registered voters (79 percent of Nahant’s population) will vote.
Until 2019, residents voted on the same day Town Meeting was held — the last Saturday in April. Dunfee said a bylaw change that year preserved that day for the annual town election but moved Town Meeting to the third Saturday in May — May 21 this year.
Voter turnout was about 10 percent in 2021, she said, compared to a higher turnout in 2020 when the clerk’s job and a Board of Selectmen seat were contested.
Voters elected Dunfee to succeed outgoing Clerk Margaret “Peggy” Barile. She said a weekend workload won’t keep her from enjoying Election Day.
“I like the process and seeing people — it’s small town government at its best,” she said.
In addition to Dunfee, Saturday’s ballot also includes Selectman Joshua A. Antrim, the sole candidate for a three-year Board of Selectmen term.
Moderator David G. Conlin is unopposed in his run for another one-year term.
Assessor David P. Hunt is running unopposed for a three-year term and Cameron S. Merrill is the sole candidate to fill the two-year unexpired term previously held by the late Perry C. Barrasso. Merrill was appointed by the selectmen in July 2021 to serve out Barrasso’s term.
Public Library Trustee Daniel P. Munnelly is running for a three-year term unopposed and Constable Robert T. Scanlan Jr. is running unopposed for a one-year term.
Beth E. Anderson was appointed by the selectmen last May to serve out former School Committeewoman Mary West’s term. Anderson is running for a three-year term on the committee and Liana Bryanos Deloid is running to serve out the unexpired one-year term Anderson is now serving.
Planning Board member Stephen D. Viviano is running unopposed for a five-year term and John Felix Stabile, a board alternate member, is running for the term now being served by board Chair Daniel M. Berman, who is not seeking re-election.
