Government
In their mock election Tuesday, Vineyard high schoolers voted overwhelmingly for President Obama.
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School cafeteria served as a polling station for a mock presidential election Tuesday afternoon; 25 per cent of enrolled students cast ballots.
History teacher Andrew Vandall said his leadership class initiated the mock election where about 700 students were able to vote during lunch.
Despite a decrease in anticipated revenue due to increased costs, Tisbury town leaders said they will move ahead with a solar panel project planned for the former town landfill. The town was originally expected to earn $60,000 a year from the project, but now is expected to earn around $45,000 because interconnection costs are higher than original estimates, said Bill Straw, the town representative on the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative.
The cooperative has worked with towns across the Cape and Islands since 2009 to develop solar projects.
At a special town meeting in Aquinnah next Thursday voters will be asked to pay for the town’s share of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Aquinnah town hall. Moderator Michael Hebert will preside; there are seven articles on the warrant. A quorum of 39 is required.
Martha’s Vineyard followed the mood of the state and the country Tuesday, when high numbers of voters turned out to the polls to help re-elect President Barack Obama to a second term and cast ballots for Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and incumbent Cong. William Keating.
The first returns from Dukes County are in: Gosnold, the seventh town in the county and smallest town in Massachusetts, narrowly voted for Barack Obama, casting 49 votes for the incumbent president and 36 votes for his challenger, Mitt Romney.
In the closely-watched U.S. Senate race, it was a nearly even split with Scott Brown beating Elizabeth Warren by a single vote, 44-43.
Islanders lined up at the polls today to cast ballots in a presidential election that has riveted and divided the country.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Polling places are Aquinnah town offices, the Chilmark Community Center, the Edgartown town hall, the Oak Bluffs public library, the American Legion Hall in Vineyard Haven, and the West Tisbury public safety building.