North Andover Turnout High Despite Heat, Power Outage

It wasn't an ideal day for an election -- temperatures in the 90s, high humidity and an afternoon power outage -- but that didn't stop North Andover voters from making their voices heard.

And the town bucked a statewide trend and voted for Republican Gabriel Gomez, who lost the election to Democratic Congressman Ed Markey.

Despite political analysts' predictions of staggeringly low voter turnout for this special election, North Andover saw a 25 percent turnout. To put that into perspective, the primary in April saw a good turnout and that was 14 percent.

"We're very pleased, you know, June is not a good time to be doing an election, with 90 degree weather," Town Clerk Joyce Bradshaw said. "The workers have been fabulous."

The workers were also tough. There was no air conditioning in the high school gym. The Fire Department brought in fans and plenty of water for them and made sure everyone stayed hydrated.

How North Andover Voted

Gabriel Gomez won not only the whole town with about 60 percent to Markey's 40 percent, but Gomez also won in every district.

Markey performed best in Precinct 1 (the northern part of town from Route 125 westward to Lawrence), in which he won more slightly more than 48 percent of the vote. Gomez won his biggest margin in Precinct 6 (area near Smolak Farms), in which he won slightly more than 68 percent. This seems to mark a trend in which Markey performed better in middle-to-moderate income neighborhoods than in the affluent "out country" neighborhoods where Gomez really shined.

According to this map on The Huffington Post, most communities in the Merrimack Valley voted for Gomez.

Here are the numbers:

Total: Gomez 3,138, Markey 2,105

Precinct 1: Gomez 327, Markey 262

Precinct 2: Gomez 426, Markey 288

Precinct 3: Gomez 304, Markey 286

Precinct 4: Gomez 466, Markey 344

Precinct 5: Gomez 295, Markey 182

Precinct 6: Gomez 546, Markey 254

Precinct 7: Gomez 346, Markey 243

Precinct 8: Gomez 428, Markey 246