Thursday, November 9, 2000 Older Editions

And the winner is... Hold on

By Adam Groff

After the most topsy-turvy national election in recent memory, Andover residents joined the rest of America Wednesday in watching Florida to see whether George W. Bush or Al Gore would become their next president.

Sal Tabit of the Andover Republican Committee said he stayed up until 5 a.m. waiting for a final tally before calling it a night. As of Townsman deadline Wednesday, residents were still waiting for the name of their next leader. Florida's secretary of state said a recount to see if Bush would hold his narrow lead in the state should be finished by the end of the day today, Thursday.

The election seemed to energize the electorate.

"It was a great night for democracy," said Tabit, on Wednesday. "Like everyone else, I'm just watching Florida. I'm pretty confident Bush will ultimately take it."

Sen. Susan Tucker (D-Andover) said, "This whole thing is an incredible tribute to America and to democracy. The whole nation is just holding its breath. Things will be okay regardless of how it turns out. It was a great election and participation was fabulous -- I'm always worried about elections where no one shows up."

Andover did not have that problem, with 16,480 voters casting ballots, according to unofficial numbers."

Overall, election results from Andover largely mirrored those in the state at large.

There were noticeable differences, however. Gore's margin of victory in town was considerably smaller than in the state, with about 48 percent of Andover voters (7,881) for Gore and 44 percent (7,312) for Bush. In Massachusetts, the latest count at press time had Gore beating Bush by about 60 to 33 percent. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader polled six percent locally and statewide. He had 1,039 votes in Andover.

Sen. Edward Kennedy also grabbed a slightly less overwhelming victory in Andover, at 64 percent to Republican Jack E. Robinson's 17 percent and Libertarian Carla Howell's 15 percent. Statewide, Kennedy polled 72 percent to Robinson's 13 and Howell's 12 percent.

Andover's answers to the eight ballot questions also matched those in Massachusetts, except that Andover residents very narrowly agreed to ban dog racing, 50 percent to 49 percent. In Massachusetts, 48 percent voted for the ban, with 52 percent deciding to keep the races.

Another notable distinction between town and state on the ballot questions was the margin by which Andover supported the Question 4 tax rollback, 70 percent to 29 percent. State voters supported it only 60 percent to 40. However, fewer Andover residents voted against the comprehensive state health care on Question 5 at a ratio of 53 to 47 percent, compared to the state's 58 to 41.

According to Town Clerk Randy Hanson, voter turnout in Andover was approximately 82 percent, which she described as good, but not record-breaking. "I was hoping for something like 88 or even 90 percent," she said. She added that Andover residents always turn out in large numbers for presidential elections. Poll workers still had stories to tell about lines from various precincts bumping into each other, as they stretched through the polling locations. Traffic was also backed up several tenths of a mile from the Andover High School voting location at various times Tuesday.

But Hanson noted with satisfaction that Andover residents appeared to have heeded calls from town officials to get to the polls early in order to avoid long lines. She said all the precincts were busy all day.