YOUR CHOICE ’24: Voters choose Zompetti in special election

Amanda Zompetti was chosen by voters to fill the vacant Select Board seat in a low-turnout special election Saturday.

Zompetti, who currently serves on the Board of Health and Community Preservation Committee, received 448 of the 1,183 votes cast, according to the unofficial results posted Saturday afternoon. Abigail Gendreau finished second with 368 votes, William Cormier earned 223 votes, and 120 cast ballots for Matthew Lynch.

Zompetti is expected to get sworn in on Monday and take part in Monday night’s Select Board meeting.

“It feels good,” Zompetti told Abington News. “I wasn’t expecting as many folks to run. It was actally awesome to see so many people are interested in it. It means so much to me to win with such competition and I’m just really excited to get to work on Monday.”

The Town of Abington has about 10,000 registered voters, meaning turnout for the special election was just under 12 percent. About 16 percent voted in April’s Annual Town Election, and about 15 percent turned out in 2023.

Zompetti, who also serves as treasurer for the Woodsdale PTO, said a couple of the top issues she heard about during the campaign included traffic and speeding, and commercial and residential taxes, and increased transparency at town hall.

“I think people just want to see the town be the best it can be, but there’s always room for improvement,” she said.

The Select Board has been operating short-handed for most of 2024. Former Selectman Alex Hagerty resigned in January and the remaining board members opted to leave the seat open until the Annual Town Election in April. And then Selectman Kevin DiMarzio resigned on May 3, with the remaining board choosing a September special election date largely to give prospective candidates the same amount of. time to campaign — about 120 days — as if they were running during the annual town election cycle.

Zompetti joins the board as the town starts the FY’26 budget process, which is expected to be challenging, and with a Special Town Meeting being called for November 25 to consider a proposed new school construction project for South Shore Technical High School.