They really did it. Framingham voters elected to become a city, the voter recount showed Monday. The recount today affirmed the results of the April 4 election after the narrow vote (it passed by less than 1 percentage point). This means Brookline is now poised to hold the new title in the state of largest town by population.
Estimates put Brookline at around 60,000 residents. And the Town of Framingham isn’t too far ahead with about 68,300 residents. Still, as soon as Framingham follows through on efforts to tranform its form of government to a mayoral, it will let go of one superlative for another. Since 1923 the city of Gardner held the honor of the “newest city” superlative.
After the April 4 vote in Framingham to become the newest city in the state garnered such a slim majority, opponents organized and called for a recount. But, the vote stands.
After a process that lasted more than four hours, election officials announced Monday that the recount affirmed the results of the April 4 vote. With 11,347 ballots cast, charter proponents enlarged their margin of victory to 112 votes. The ballot question passed by a margin of 5,695 in favor and 5,583 opposed.