Philip Gould wins Special Election for Lincoln Town Administrator
Independent candidate for Town Administrator Philip Gould was (unofficially) elected to succeed T. Joseph Almond as Lincoln’s next Town Administrator on September 7th. Gould placed first in a six way race for the seat with 63% of the vote. Gould defeated Republican State Senator Thomas Paolino, former State Representative and Democratic candidate John Barr II, and three other Independent candidates: former Lincoln School Committee member John Picozzi, John J. Cullen, and James Spooner. There are still some mail ballots to be counted; the results of the election will be certified next week. 4,280 voters turned out to cast their ballots in the special election, or 23.5% of registered voters in Lincoln.
The Justice Department says two members of Elon Musk's DOGE team may have misused Social Security data. In a recent court filing, the DOJ alleges the employees were secretly in touch with a group trying to overturn election results. It's unclear if the DOGE employees shared the data with the unnamed advocacy group. Both have been referred for possible violations of the Hatch Act, which bars government workers from using their jobs for political purposes. 
