Last Tuesday’s elections in the villages of Montgomery and Walden yielded low voter turnout when compared to previous years while Maybrook saw an increase in election votes due to multiple contested races on the ballot.

In the Village of Montgomery, incumbents Michael Hembury and Walter Lindner were re-elected village trustees, earning 365 and 358 votes respectively. Challenger Don Berger came up short, garnering 237 votes. There was also one write-in vote. Hembury and Lindner will continue to serve on the village board for an additional four years.

Voter turnout was down in the Village of Montgomery this year, as 838 residents voted in the last election in 2019. The decrease in voter turnout frustrated Berger.

“With everything that’s going on in and around the Village of Montgomery, it’s very disappointing that we had that type of a turnout,” he said. “Why people don’t vote, I don’t know. But in this particular election, they had ample information in front of them and for them not to turnout to vote is mind-boggling.”

Lindner attributed the decrease in voter turnout to the limited number of races on the ballot.

“Two years ago, that election usually gets a bigger turnout because the mayor is running,” he said. “When it’s just two trustees we don’t get as big a turnout as we did two years ago when we had two trustees plus the mayor and an opening for the judge.”

Lindner added that when he and Hembury ran for re-election in 2017, they earned about 400 votes each whereas this year they received approximately 350. He believes that the decrease in voter turnout was also due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In general I’d have to say it has to be the COVID that kept our numbers down from where they were four years ago,” Lindner said. “A lot of people just don’t want to go out. You have to go to the voting place and be amongst people and I think a lot of people are still very hesitant to do that.”

The Village of Walden featured an uncontested election. Deputy Mayor John Ramos earned 97 votes while trustees Brian Sebring, Lynn Thompson and John Elliott received 81, 84 and 74 votes respectively. Village Justice Raynard Ozman garnered 103 votes. The mayor and trustees serve two-year terms while the village justice serves a four-year term.

110 people voted in this year’s Walden election, down 23 from 2019.

Unlike Montgomery and Walden, there was an increase in voter turnout for this year’s Maybrook election.

Candidates were competing for two open two-year seats in the Maybrook village trustee election. Incumbents James Barnett and Kevin Greany earned close vote totals of 240 and 255. Challenger Joseph Byrne fell short, earning 171 votes.

In Maybrook’s village justice election, incumbent William Schimpf defeated challenger Charles Woznick by a vote count of 254 to 122. Schimpf’s term will last four years.