The $40.6 million school district budget passed by more than a 2-1 margin districtwide, with South Berwick voters supporting the $40.6 million budget by just under that margin and Eliot voters just over it. In addition, South Berwick Democrats followed the statewide trend in the high visibility primary for U.S. Senate, giving candidate Graham Platner a 3-1 margin over outgoing Gov. Janet Mills and David Costello in the effort to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Among the 1,636 South Berwick residents who cast school budget ballots, 1,037 voters, or 63%, voted in favor of the spending package for 2026-2027 proposed by the MSAD35 school board. In Eliot 1,599 of the 2,251 voters, or 71 %, supported the budget, which brought the affirmative totals to 2,636 of the 3,887 votes cast. The 562 ballots cast in the Republican gubernatorial primary went equally for Robert Charles and Benjamin Midgley, with the six others seeking the nomination trailing further behind. The race is headed for a ranked choice runoff not likely to be decided for days. In the Republican race for the District 1 U.S. House of Representative nomination, Ronald Russell took the lead over Joshua Pietrowicz. In state races, Julie Rakic was unopposed for the District 35 state Senate seat to replace Sen. Mark Lawrence, who is termed out. Timothy Towne and Mark Zimmer ran unopposed for state House nominations in Districts 149 and 150, respectively. Some 1,570 ballots were cast in the Democratic primary, with Graham Planter taking 1,024 votes, or …