Uncontested Races Dominate Town Election Ballot

Only two races in April's town election will be contested, with the remaining seven boards and positions left without a challenger.

While multiple residents pulled papers that would have created races, several did not return signatures to stay in the election.

Board of Selectmen incumbent Jim MacDonald won't face a challenger, and neither will School Committee members Joe Heisler, Kevin Coughlin and David Roberts as that committee looks to fill three seats.

Of course, a candidate could pull together a write-in campaign between now and Election Day on April 14.

The Library Board of Trustees has one seat open with two candidates: former School Committee member Tracy Driscoll and Marcia Jane Withiam-Wilson.

Three residents will battle for one seat on the Board of Assessors: Katherine Herrick, Richard Browne and John Healy.

Parks and Recreation commissioners Chuck Dello Iacono and John Maida will run again for two open seats; and Town Clerk Paul Munchbach will run unopposed for another three-year term.

The ballot picked up a number of Town Meeting candidates following a Dedham Patch article last week that reported the ballot was more than  of a full election.

According to Munchbach, there are more candidates than open seats in precincts 3 and 6, and as many candidates as seats in Precinct 1. Precinct 5 is two short at 37 candidates for 39 seats, and precincts 4 and 7 are 10 short. Precinct 2 has 34 candidates for 39 seats.

In total, out of 273 available Town Meeting seats, 27 will need to come from write-ins.

Voters will hit the polls for the local election on April 14, and some will have different polling locations.

The new locations, effective for the pre-presidential primary on March 6, are as follows:

Precinct 1:
Precinct 2:
Precinct 3:
Precincts 4 & 6:
Precincts 5 & 7: