YOUR CHOICE: It’s Election Day. Go vote!

The polls are open in Abington.

Voters can cast ballots in the annual Town Election between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. at Emerald Hall on Central Street.

A number of new protocols are in effect to keep voters and election workers healthy. Voters are asked to wear masks while inside the hall, or while waiting outside if there’s a line.  When voters first enter the hall, they will be greeted by workers asking them to sanitize their hands and offering them a sanitized black pen. Voters are asked to leave the pen in a bin when they check out. Poll workers are sitting behind clear plexiglass windows.

Town Clerk Leanne Adams said the hall has hired an environmental crew to help keep the facility clean throughout the day.

The biggest race is the five-way contest for the two open seats on the Board of Selectmen. Current selectmen Ken Coyle and Tom Connolly opted not to seek reelection.

Running to replace them are Alex Bezanson, of Randolph Street; William Cormier, of Orange Street; Susan Ferreira-Emery, of Shaw Avenue; Michael Kolodziej, of Lantern Lane; and Robert Manning, of Orange Street. 

To help voters better know the candidates, the Abington News posed weekly questions to all the candidates. The responses can be found here. 

Abington Community Access & Media Executive Director Kevin Tocci conducted one-on-one interviews with the candidates.  Those can be found here.

And the candidates forum, hosted jointly by Abington News and Abington Community Access & Media,  featuring four of the five candidates, can be found here.

The only other contested race on the ballot is for Housing Authority. Robert Bates, of Shaw Avenue, is up against Ellen Delany, of Washington Street, to fill a four-year unexpired term.

Also on the ballot, Town Clerk Leanne Adams, of Shaw Avenue, is running for reelection, as is Town Moderator Shawn Reilly, of Russell Lane; Board of Assessor member Lawrence Keough, of East Battery Street; Public Library trustees Betty Henderson, of Linwood Street, Barbara McLaughlin, of Checkerberry Road, and John O’Neill Jr., of Mulberry Drive; School Committee members Chris Coyle, of Karen Lane, and Wendy Happel, of Adams Street; Planning Board member Robert Soper, of Reed Street; and Sewer Commissioners John Brown, of Allen Street, and Mark Jamieson, of Andrew Ford Way.

Ann Kent, of Regency Lane, is running to fill a one-year unexpired term on the Board of Assessors, and Christina Fifer, of Bicknell Hill Road,  is running unopposed for a seat on the Board of Health. 

There are no candidates running for the open seat on the Abington/ Rockland Joint Water Works board. 

Adams said 266 residents voted by absentee ballot, the most ever for a town election.