At Monday's referendum, electors turned aside a proposal to swap a portion of town-owned property at West Wharf beach for a property at 91 West Wharf Road owned by the developers of the Madison Beach Hotel. With just under 21 percent of the electorate voting, the proposal was defeated by 294 votes, with 1,245 voting in favor and 1,539 opposed. Here, District 1 moderator Laura Downes, standing, passes out the piles of paper ballots used for the voting. Because the optical scanners were programmed for the upcoming municipal election

Nov. 3 and therefore could not be used for this referendum, the paper ballots were counted by hand. In District 1, eight counters set to work as Downes distributed the marked ballots.

—Marianne Sullivan