Do You Hear What I Hear?

One of the signs that hung in front of Tilton Rentall (at the blinker) during election week in Oak Bluffs -- the town that didn't get to participate in the non-binding referendum.

So the results are in on the roundabout referendum from four of the five towns whose selectmen gave voters a chance to express their opinion. Aquinnah doesn’t vote till May 9. Here’s the tally so far:

Edgartown: 508 NO ROUNDABOUT, 171 yes, 27 blanks — 72% against

West Tisbury: 505 no, 175 yes, 34 blanks — 71% against

Tisbury: 686 no, 215 yes, 25 blanks — 74% against

Chilmark: 180 no, 65 yes, 16 blanks — 69% against

Chilmark, which voted yesterday, is the home of Chris Murphy, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission chair who twice broke an MVC deadlock in favor of the roundabout. Too bad, Chris: there’s no way to break a landslide!

Thanks to its roundabout-boosting selectmen, Oak Bluffs didn’t get to vote on the issue. Anyone want to hazard a guess what the tally would have been if they had?

Senator Wolf, Representative Madden, Governor Patrick: Are you listening?

About Susanna J. Sturgis

Susanna edits for a living and writes to survive. Having been preoccupied with electoral politics since 2016, she is now getting back to writing -- and she's got plenty to write about. Her blog "The T-Shirt Chronicles," started at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a meandering memoir based on her out-of-control T-shirt collection. Her other blogs include "From the Seasonally Occupied Territories," about being a year-round resident of Martha's Vineyard, and "Write Through It," about writing, editing, and how to keep going.

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