Longtime Canton board members reelected
Voters rewarded incumbents in Canton.
Town of Canton photo
The Town of Canton’s governing board has been through a lot in the last four years — with the 2021 flood and the 2023 closure of the town’s largest employer — but they must be doing a good job managing the chaos, as voters decided overwhelmingly to return Mayor Pro Temp Gail Mull and Alderman Ralph Hamlett for another term.
Mull led the ticket with 249 votes, followed by Hamlett with 219. Challenger Adam Hatton finished third of three with 150 votes. Mull also led the early voting totals, with 33 votes. Hamlett was next with 23, ahead of Hatton’s 16.
Hatton mounted a strong effort for a first-time candidate, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. His total left him with 23.5% of the vote, almost 11 points behind Hamlett and 16 behind Mull.
The totals indicate strong interest in the race; in 2019, the last time Mull and Hamlett were up for election, Mull earned a total of 110 votes, with Hamlett pulling in 101. Both were unopposed that year, perhaps leading some to believe they didn’t need to show up at the polls.
This year, however, things are much different. The town is still working to recover from the floods and the impact of Pactiv Evergreen’s March announcement that it would shutter the century-old paper mill at the heart of the town, which it did in June. Elected officals and administrators still have a lot of work to do.
