The 2026 elections are over, and several states made history Tuesday night in various ways. While Massachusetts didn’t do anything historic, Bay State voters reelected their first woman governor, Maura Healey.

Ed Markey won another term as senator, too. And Massachusetts is getting same-day voter registration, but not an all-parties primary.

Here are some highlights of the voting in Newton. These are based on unofficial results, and results for the second page of the ballot (with the last two questions) are still not in.

The polls were real

As he campaigned in Newton last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue said to supporters at Cabot’s, “The polls aren’t real.”

The polls—which showed him trailing incumbent Gov. Maura Healey by more than 20 percent—turned out to be real. Healey won with 62 percent of the votes, Minogue got about 35 percent, and independent candidate Andrea James got 3.4 percent.

Minogue did even worse in Newton. Healey got about 77 percent of Newton’s votes, while Minogue scored about 20 percent and James got 2.5 percent. The remaining votes were blanks.

He did best in Nonantum and Oak Hill. Nonantum gave him around 28 percent when you average out that ward’s precincts, and Oak Hill gave him about the same.

The questions were many

The real excitement was in the ballot questions. This year, there were nine questions (tying a record set in the 1990s), and they were big ones. Should public records law cover lawmakers? Should more housing be allowed on small lots? Should cannabis be relegated back to the black market?

For Question 1, the public records one, Newton joined the rest of the state with a loud “Yes.” Newton voted in favor of requiring the governor and the legislature to comply with public records law, to the tune of 85 percent. Statewide, the initiative got 86 percent support. It’s safe to say that’s a mandate.

Question 2, which asked if public defense attorneys should be able to unionize, also got widespread support citywide, at about 65 percent. That’s slightly higher than the state tally of 64 percent in support.

The controversial Question 3, which asked if the state should have all-party primaries, saw a lot of heated debate this campaign season. In the end, Massachusetts said “No” to the tune of 61 percent. And Newton matched that vote, too, with about 59 percent against the initiative.

With Question 4, which asked if we should have same-day voter registration, Newton was more enthusiastic. About 57 percent of the state’s voters voted in favor of it. In Newton, 67 percent backed it.

Question 5—a proposal to change the state’s tax revenue limit formula that failed to pass—had 52 percent against it statewide. And Newtonians liked it even less, with 61 percent voting against it. Opponents said the measure would lead to schools and infrastructure losing funding as the state would be required to keep taxes lower to fit the new formula.

Question  6 asked if the state sales taxes on sporting goods and recreational vehicles should be put into a fund for open space conservation, and the Garden City supported that with a little more than 60 percent of the vote. That aligned with the statewide vote almost exactly.

The most divided result statewide was in Question 7, which asked if there should be a new state law bypassing local zoning to allow more single-family homes on smaller lots. That measure failed to pass, with 50.7 against it and 49.3 percent in favor. Newton voted in support of the initiative with 53 percent in favor.

Not done

Local results still aren’t in for questions 8 and 9 (which failed to pass statewide). According to the clerk’s office at Newton City Hall, that’s because those two questions were on a second page. Massachusetts had so many ballot questions that we needed a two-page ballot, and hand-counts are done for each page.

The second page is still being counted, and that’s why, if you go to the city website and try to get the math to add up to 100 percent, you may get a migraine. We’ll have those numbers before Monday, the clerk’s office assures.