Tri-Towns share opinions on five ballot questions
Along with voting for the next president of the United States and much more Tuesday, Nov. 5, Tri-Town voters also marked yes or no on five statewide ballot questions on their election day ballot.
Although there were disagreements between the three towns on who should be the next president, all three towns voted the same way for each of the five questions.
The first question asked residents if the state auditor should have the authority to audit the state legislature.
The majority of voters in Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester each said yes.
In fact, the percentage of voters who said yes in each of the three towns were all within 1% of each other.
Marion had the highest percentage of yes votes at 70.6% or 2,370 people compared to 987 votes no.
Mattapoisett followed closely at 70.3% yes with 3,254 votes. Only 1,369 Mattapoisett residents voted no.
Lastly, 69.7% or 2,610 of Rochester voters answered with a yes.
Question two if passed would eliminate MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.
Each of the three towns received a majority of ballots with yes votes.
In total across the Tri-Town, 7,355, or 60.1%, voted yes on question two and 4,878 voted no.
Out of the five questions, the responses for question three were the closest between yes and no in the Tri-Town.
Question three asked voters if rideshare drivers on apps like Uber or Lyft should be allowed to unionize.
In the Tri-Town, 6,617, or 56%, of ballots were cast with no filled in compared to 5,200 with yes marked.
Question four asked voters if certain natural psychedelics — psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine, mescaline and ibogaine — should be legalized.
The majority of the Tri-Town again voted no with 61.3% in agreement.
The final question resulted in the most one-sided vote out of any of the five in the Tri-Town.
Question five if passed would raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to $15 and allow tips to be pooled with all employees.
Tri-Town voters strongly felt that this too shall not pass.
Just 2,731 Tri-Town voters said yes, the lowest mark out of any of the five questions. The 9,438 yes votes is good for 77.6%.
The vote in Rochester was the most lopsided with 81.7% of voters saying no. Mattapoisett followed with 76.6% voting no. In Marion, 74.1% voted no.