Precinct 3 Voters Push Joe Previtera Ahead to Win Seat on Westwood's Select Board

All three incumbents in the three contested races in Westwood's 2023 Annual Town Election dominated as the leading vote-getters in four of Westwood's five voting precincts, but the contested race for Select Board had a surprising outcome where Joseph Previtera managed to wrest the open seat from incumbent Michael Walsh. Gathering the lion's share of support from Precinct 3 was key to Mr. Previtera's win over Mr. Walsh. 

In the race for Select Board, over twice as many Precinct 3 voters turned out for Mr. Previtera versus Mr. Walsh - 441 to 212. It was the support of voters in Precinct 3 that enabled Mr. Previtera to overcome Mr. Walsh's support from the other four precincts where Mr. Walsh led. In the unofficial results, Mr. Previtera  prevailed over Mr. Walsh by 52 votes.

In the race for two open seats for School Committee, the incumbent also carried four of five precincts. Incumbent Amanda Phillips led the votes in Precincts 1, 2, 3, and 5. Thomas Themistocles was the top vote getter in Precinct 4. But Joanna French's strong second place finish across the board in five precincts placed her solidly ahead of Mr. Themistocles in the overall vote count. Ms. French finished 124 votes behind Ms. Phillips and 321 votes ahead of Mr. Themistocles. Ms. Phillips and Ms. French, who both campaigned together, won the two open seats for School Committee.

Again, a similar story was repeated in the race for Library Trustee, where incumbent Maureen Murphy Von Euw led the vote in four of five precincts - Precincts 1, 2, 3 and 5. Melissa Morabito led with 46 percent of the vote in the remaining precinct (Precinct 4) where Ms. Murphy Von Euw received 31 percent of the vote and Wendy Hickey received 23 percent of the vote. But Ms. Hickey's comfortable second place finish across the board in all other districts put her ahead of Ms. Morabito, ensuring Ms. Hickey's election to the second of two open seats for Library Trustee.

In uncontested races, the sole candidates running were elected to those positions: 

• Assessor: Mark F. Murphy
• Housing Authority: Elissa Gordet Franco
• Moderator: James M. O’Sullivan
• Planning Board: Philip M. Giordano
• Sewer Commissioner: Francis X. MacPherson, Jr.

No candidate ran for Tax Collector. There were 254 write-ins, the results which will be announced in the next few days.

Source: Town of Westwood. Page 1 of 2, Annual Town Election April 25, 2023 Unofficial Results.

Source: Town of Westwood. Page 2 of 2, Annual Town Election April 25, 2023 Unofficial Results.

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