SALEM — Salem residents narrowed down the candidates during Tuesday’s preliminary election with Erin Turowski and Cynthia Jerzylo taking Ward 1, Katelyn Holappa and Robert Camire taking Ward 6, and Andrew Smith and William Legault taking Ward 2, amid an 11% turnout citywide.
In the Ward 1 race, Erin Turowski took first with 274 votes, incumbent Cynthia Jerzylo took second with 242, and Walter Morrell was eliminated from the race, receiving 114 votes.
“I think all of the candidates put together very great campaigns,” Turowski said. “It was really anybody’s race. I’m happy with the result, but I recognize that there’s a lot of work left to do, and I’m ready to get started.”
In the Ward 2 race, Andrew Smith took first with 286 votes, narrowly beating out William Legault who received 279, with John Newhall being eliminated from the race with 95 votes.
“Thank everyone who helped me get to this spot,” Smith said. “There’s still a lot of work to do. But it means a lot that Salem voted on the issues.”
“Congratulations to Andrew Smith, and thanks to John Newhall for putting his name on the ballot, it’s not an easy thing to do,” Legault said. “Now I have good work to do, and so does Andrew.”
In the Ward 5 race, Lydia King took first with 325 votes, Zachary Calderon took second with 114, and Frederic Norton and John Hunt were eliminated from the race after receiving 53 and 50 votes respectively.
In the Ward 6 race, Katelyn Holappa took first with 298 votes, Robert Camire took second with 115 votes, and Marlene Warner was eliminated from the race after receiving 91 votes.
“I’m grateful to both of the other candidates, I really appreciate the race that we all ran,” Holappa said. “I’m excited to keep at it for the next six weeks and go into the general election with a bunch more energy.”
“I’ve been at it for a couple months now, I started early because originally I had three other opponents,” Camire said. “I’ve covered the whole ward and passed out about 1,300 pound cards. So now we’ll get to work.”
A total of 2,357 ballots were counted among the four ward races, representing about 11.2% of the city’s registered voting base. The two candidates who received the most votes in each ward will now face off at the general election in November.
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202