Write-ins outpoll Peabody candidates

Peabody’s mayor was ousted, but the rest of the election in Peabody was thrown into doubt Tuesday night.

Write-in candidates for city council drew more votes than candidates listed on the ballot in Tuesday’s election.

A total of 264 write-in votes, were tallied, easily outpacing ballot-listed candidates Randy Dallke with 59, Beth Peter with 57, James Philpott with 39., and Jennifer Bush with 31.

Write-in names were not tallied Tuesday, so it will not be known, probably until next week, whether any individual candidate write-in candidate might have received sufficient votes to be elected to the two seats at stake.

In the mayoral race, council president Kevin Burke won 133 votes, defeating incumbent Catherine Weems, who drew 90.

In other election results Tuesday, incumbent Molly Guinn will retain her seat on the Marion-Florence school board. She got 269 votes to opponent Josh Housman’s 110.

Marion-Florence board members are elected by district.

Alysha Haines, with 250 votes to Roman Hofer’s 133, won a second seat at stake.

Jenna Meyerhoff, taking 273 votes, beat Amy Soyez’s 115 votes for a third seat.

Jim R. Schmidt outpolled Mark Smith 90 to 54 for a seat on the Goessel school board.

In Burns, Dillon Ryan with 42 votes and Travis Bailey with 35 won city council seats over Eugene L. Pearson, who received 27 votes.

All other races in Tuesday’s election had no opposition on the ballot.