Olson loses seat as two newcomers voted onto Planning Board

Longtime Planning Board member Margaret Olson came in third and thus lost her bid for reelection in Lincoln’s town election on March 31 as challengers Susan Hall Mygatt and Rob Ahlert won the two open seats. 

The vote was quite close among the three candidates. Mygatt came in first with 558 votes (33%), but Ahlert edged out Olson, 446 to 416 (26% to 24%). 

Though incumbents usually have an advantage, there was one element that probably determined the outcome: both Mygatt and Ahlert opposed the Housing Choice Act rezoning measure that Olson shepherded through last year as Planning Board chair. And in a “My Turn” piece in the Lincoln Squirrel on March 23, Flint (an incumbent who chose not to run for reeelction) endorsed the two challengers. He cited Mygatt’s experience on the Conservation Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as the fact that Ahlert of 185 Lincoln Road lives close to the South Lincoln area that was rezoned.

“With all the changes that are slated for this area, I believe it’s critical that the neighborhood has a voice on the Planning Board,” Flint wrote.

The tightness of the race echoed the contentious March 2024 Town Meeting vote on the rezoning measure, which passed by a slim 52%-to-48% margin. Not coincidentally, that was the first year that zoning bylaw changes could be approved by towns with a simple majority vote rather than the previous two-thirds. 

In the other contested race, John Ryan Jr. and Charles Morton IV were the top two vote-getters for the two openings on the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School Committee, beating out Eric Poch (all from Sudbury). In that town, which also held its election on March 31, Ryan won 1,528 votes, Morton received 1,436, and Poch got 836. Click here for the full Sudbury results. 

In Lincoln, 850 voters cast ballots, or 17% of the town’s 5,020 registered voters.

	Precinct 1	Precinct 2	Total
Select Board
James M. Hutchinson	462	202	664
Write-in/blank	148	38	186
Total	610	240	850
Board of Assessors
Bruce D. Campbell	448	193	641
Write-in/blank	162	47	209
Total	610	240	850
Board of Health
Steven R. Kanner	448	194	642
Write-in/blank
Total	610	240	850
Cemetery Commissioner
Conrad H. Todd	470	199	669
Write-in/blank	140	41	181
Total	610	240	850
Commissioner of Trust Funds
Douglas B. Harding	455	193	648
Write-in/blank	155	47	202
Total	610	240	850
L-S Regional School District Committee (vote for two)*
Charles I. Morton IV	367	146	513
Eric D. Poch	60	40	100
John J. Ryan, Jr.	395	174	569
Write-in/blank	398	120	518
Total	1,220	480	1,700
Parks and Recreation Committee
Thornton D. Ring, Jr.	443	178	621
Write-in/Blank	167	62	229
Total	610	240	850
Planning Board (vote for two)
Setha Margaret Olson	305	111	416
Robert D. Ahlert	315	131	446
Susan Hall Mygatt	389	169	558
Write-in/blank	211	69	280
Total	1,220	480	1,700
School Committee – three years
Kenneth R. Lepage	437	178	615
Write-in/blank	171	62	235
Total	610	240	850
School Committee – two years
Abbey B. Salon	439	184	623
Write-in/blank	171	56	227
Total	610	240	850
Town Clerk
Valerie Fox	519	215	734
Write-in/blank	91	25	116
Total	610	240	850
Trustees of Bemis Fund
Sara A. Mattes	447	184	631
Write-in/blank	163	56	219
Total	610	240	850
Trustees of Lincoln Library
Ray A. Shepard	479	197	676
Write-in/blank	131	43	174
Total	610	240	850
Water Commissioner
Stephen R. Gladstone	464	197	661
Write-in/blank	146	43	189
Total	610	240	850

* Totals do not include Sudbury votes; click here for those results.