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Partial Salem returns show incumbents leading at-large races; several wards elect new councilors
Summary
Partial returns shown during SATV’s Inside Salem broadcast on election night indicated incumbents leading the four at-large council seats and produced new winners in several ward contests. Hosts cautioned the returns were preliminary; official totals and outstanding absentee/mail ballots are counted by the city clerk.
Partial returns shown live on Salem Access Television’s Inside Salem election-night broadcast on Nov. 6 indicated incumbents Alice Merkel, Conrad Przyniewski, Ty Hapworth and Kyle Davis were leading the four at-large council seats, while several ward contests produced new councilors. The hosts emphasized the numbers presented were partial returns from precinct tapes and the spreadsheet maintained by Dustin Luca and associates, and not official city totals.
The broadcast reported winners and leading candidates in multiple ward races: Erin Turovski was shown as the Ward 1 winner; Andrew Smith led Ward 2; Tim Flynn held a narrow lead in Ward 4 by roughly two dozen votes in the returns presented; Lydia King won the open Ward 5 seat, replacing Jeff Cohen; Caitlin Halapa won Ward 6 by a wide margin; and a first-time candidate identified as Sidoriak led in Ward 3. In the school committee contest the three candidates reported as winning were Beth Ann Cornell, Meg Stott and Yamile Baez. Hosts noted that because some ballots were blank in races and because absentee and mail ballots are counted later at city hall, percentage figures and margins could change in the official canvass.
The broadcast provided precinct-by-precinct detail as returns arrived. Examples given on air included a 585-vote showing for Mayor Dominic Pangalo in one precinct (Pangalo ran unopposed) and, later in the program, a tentative citywide total of 6,835 ballots viewed on the tapes the production team was tracking. Turnout varied across wards; hosts cited 31% turnout in Ward 1 Precinct 1 and around 11% in Ward 7 in the returns they displayed.
Hosts Mike Allen and Josh Toriel framed the results in a longer-term context: they reviewed past close contests and recounts in Salem and said the at-large incumbents’ margins made it unlikely that trailing challengers could overtake them in the outstanding returns. They also noted technical limitations of the live spreadsheet (partial name display and occasional audio issues) and encouraged viewers to await the city clerk’s official canvass for certified results.
The program repeatedly underscored that the figures were based on precinct tapes and live updates to a public spreadsheet; the broadcast did not substitute for the official count.
