Canton Voters Defeat Community Preservation Act; McSweeney wins Housing Authority Seat
Low voter turnout in yesterday's election yet, still higher than the last two annual town elections combined.
Canton voters headed to the polls yesterday to defeat the Community Preservation Act, a measure that would add a one percent tax to residential and commercial propety tax bills that would be dedicated to help fund open space, historic preservation and affordable housing projects.
This was the second time the CPA was brought before Canton voters. It was shot down 753 to 579 votes. The first time was in 2006 when it passed through the Annual Town Meeting and vetoed at the November election.
John McSweeney won a seat on the Housing Authority with 630 votes; Paul J. Alfano received 449 votes. The Housing Authority provided the only race in this year's election.
Ten percent or 1,360 voters came out to the polls in yesterday's election. Canton Town Clerk Tracey Kenney said this was more than the past two year's combined, possibly due to the contested race and CPA question on the ballot.
Eric Sondergeld
8:38 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
I didn't even know there was a vote yesterday. How does the town communicate things like this?
Margaret Carroll-Bergman
2:39 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
It was posted on the Town of Canton's website. Canton Patch posted a story about the election on Monday and followed up with another story on Tuesday.