According to the sample ballot posted on the Town Clerk’s web site there are 259 town meeting candidates running for 279 open town meeting seats. With that many candidates it is not surprising that there might be a snafu. And there appears there might be one in Precinct 2.
We are living in a temporary lollipop land what with all these signs sprouting up everywhere, and in very interesting combinations too! Right now there are tight races for key elected positions; Selectmen and Town Clerk are two. But enough about them! What about Town Meeting Member elections?
The redistricting of precincts that resulted from our last census requires that all town meeting seats be contested, all 279 of them. The town now has 10 precincts, not 11. However, the number of town meeting members remains the same. Precinct 11 is now the new 10 and Precinct 2 now includes a significant bite out of Precinct 3. You can find the revised precinct map here. You can also easily look up your precinct and polling location on the Secretary of State’s web site here.
A review of the ballot indicates that town meeting is going to be 20 short of a full deck. Here is our count based on the ballot.
This is pretty self-explanatory. The numbers in the right column are red indicate that there are fewer candidates than available seats. The negative numbers indicate a contest and number of candidates over available seats. This may be counter intuitive – whatever.
Precinct 8 is going to be be fairly under-represented at town meeting going forward. They will have 8 unfilled seats. Precinct 3 is the most contested with 2 more candidates than there are seats. But there is at least one issue. And that is with Precinct 2. The ballot indiates there will be a contest with 32 candidates running for 31 seats; but that is not the case. How do we know this? We live in precinct 2 and talk to lots of people who follow these things and so we asked our local authority, “What gives? You told me there were only 31 candidates and I’ve counted this ballot 14 times and I get 32.” What we have learned is that candidate Robert Rosofsky is not really a candidate. Mr. Rosofsky took out nomination papers but he didn’t give them back. So if he is elected, he cannot serve. He is likely fine with that.
If you are running for town meeting in Precinct 2, saw it was contested, and freaked out that you might have to rush out a mailing or start knocking on doors, you can relax. The clerk’s office was closed when we learned of this and we do not know at the moment how they will inform voters of the change.
Please take a look at the ballot for your prectinct and if you are in a precinct that currently has empty seats give some thought to who might be appropriate to write in. Glibness aside, these seats do matter. at the Annual Town Meeting in early May members will be voting on the Community Preservation Act, an allocation for development of a new Master Plan, and the appointment of a committee to work with town clerk on any future redistricting efforts, to name just a few. The votes they take will set the direction for the town.