Wareham voters favor Harris, Gaskey, Pacheco

Wareham voters on Tuesday narrowly favored Democrat Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump in the presidential contest, solidified Republican John Gaskey’s bid to succeed the late Susan Williams Gifford in the State Legislature and narrowly favored Democrat Joe Pacheco in state senate a race that, as of this writing, was too close to call.

With more than 13,000 votes cast – more than half of them through early voting and mail-in ballots – tallying the total was delayed into the early morning hours on Wednesday. Town Clerk Lisa Johnson noted that the large number of write-in votes complicated the vote-counting process.

On the five state-wide referendum questions, Wareham’s votes were largely in line with the statewide outcomes: Allowing the state auditor to audit the legislature, eliminating the MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement, opposing the limited legalization of some psychedelics, and opposing changing the way tipped workers are compensated.

Of Wareham’s 19,730 registered voters, 13,030 or about 66% voted early, by mail and showed up at the polls in Wareham for Tuesday, Nov. 5 presidential election, exceeding the 12,538 voters in 2020’s presidential election, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Voters narrowly favored Harris in Wareham with 6,411 (49%) choosing her while Trump received 6,254 or 48% of the votes for president. Candidates from the Socialism and Liberation, Libertarian and Green and Rainbow parties and an Independent candidate received a combined one and a half percent of the vote.

Closer to home, Wareham voters backed Republican John Gaskey to represent the 2nd Plymouth district with 8,599 (66%) casting votes in his favor while 1,110 or 9% voted for write-in candidates which included Democrat Sarah Hewins. Interestingly 3,320 voters did not choose Gaskey or write-in a candidate, leaving it blank.

Sarah Hewins, a Democrat ran a write-in campaign for the seat which Susan Williams Gifford left vacant after her passing in October 2024. Gifford, a Republican, held the 2nd Plymouth seat in the State Legislature for 22 years. For more on the race see page 9.

For their state senator Wareham voters narrowly favored Democrat Joe Pacheco with 5,879 (45%) votes over Republican Kelly Dooner who received 5,801 (44%) and Independent James DuPont with 524 or 4%.

Pacheco, served as a member of the Raynham Select Board for 17 years, before running for the seat previously held by Marc Pacheco, no relation, who is retiring this year.

Wareham voters also chose Republican challenger John Deaton over Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren with 6,588 (50.5%) votes cast for Deaton and 6,125 (47%) for Warren.

In the House of Representative Wareham favored Democratic incumbent Bill Keating over Republican challenger Dan Sullivan. Keating received 6,692 (51%) votes while Sullivan garnered 5,769 votes or 44%.

Both Warren and Keating have retained their seats according to preliminary results from the Associated Press.

Wareham voters were also asked to answer five referendum questions on the ballot. Voters supported a measure to allow the state auditor to audit the senate as well as removing the requirement for high schoolers to pass the MCAS to graduate. Voters rejected measures which would decriminalize psychedelic substances, raise wages for tipped workers and allow transportation-network drivers to form unions. For more on referendums see page 10.

Election workers across Wareham’s three polling locations noted higher turnout, particularly among young and first-time voters.

A line stretched out of the Redman Hall voting location when the doors opened on Election Day, something Elizabeth Averill, who has been a Wareham election worker since the 1980s, said she’s never seen before.

“Even the computer database has been slow, it's like ‘what are you doing to me,’” Averill said.

Election workers from the other two voting sites in Wareham, Town Hall and Hammond School, agreed with Averill’s assessment, describing Election Day as “busy” and “heavy turnout.”

According to the Wareham town clerk, early voting and mail-in ballot counts were also high with more than 5,437 Wareham residents voting by mail and 1,378 voting early this year.