One of these Gardner mayoral candidates earned more than 80% of the vote in the election

GARDNER — Mayor Michael Nicholson was overwhelmingly re-elected to another term on Nov. 2, receiving nearly 80 percent of the vote over challenger Peter Sargent, according to preliminary numbers released by the city clerk’s office.

Nicholson received 2,254 votes compared to the 575 ballots cast for Sargent. According to unofficial numbers, a total of 2,885 of 12,885 (22.39%) registered Gardner voters cast ballots in the election.

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“I’m very proud of the showing that we had out here tonight,” said Nicholson after his win was announced. “To get just about 80 percent of the vote is unbelievable and I can’t thank the voters enough for the help they put into my campaign and the faith they’ve put into me, and I look forward to seeing how we can continue to grow this city over the course of the next two years.”

Nicholson said he was very pleased with all of the results from the city election.

Sargent, a retired attorney in Gardner, offered his congratulations to Nicholson on his victory, and said he wasn’t ruling out another political run in the future.

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“I never had political aspirations, never wanted to be a politician — I was a lawyer and that’s bad enough — but I talked to a lot of people in the runup to this election and got a lot of good feedback. And the people want hope. So, I appreciate everybody that I talked to who offered positive comments and was willing to host a lawn sign.”

Sargent said he hoped that having two candidates on the ballot made the election more of a race.

“I think it made a difference because competition is a good thing and it’s what we want,” he said.

Nicholson was elected to his first term as mayor in a special election in June 2020, winning nearly 70 percent of the votes cast over City Councilor Scott J. Graves. Nicholson was sworn into office the following month.

The special election became necessary following the resignation of longtime Mayor Mark Hawke in January of that year. City Councilor James Walsh and later City Councilor Elizabeth Kazinskas served as acting mayor in the interim.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson re-elected overwhelmingly on Nov. 2