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BOARD of REGISTRARS
February 16, 2011
Meeting Minutes
- Meeting was called to order at 9:10am
Attendees: Claire Golding, Lynne Grettum, Anne Littlefield (Chair)
Absent: Betty Lawson
- Meeting minutes from September 23, 2010 were unanimously approved as written.
- Copies of a Board of Registrars job description were distributed along with 2011/2012 State Election calendars.
- Nomination papers/Petition process was discussed.
- Lynne advised the members that in order for the Town Clerk to accept and certify nomination papers and Petitions the Board would have to vote to accept that process. A motion was put forth and seconded “to allow the Town Clerk to accept and certify nomination papers and petitions on behalf of the Board of Registrars of Voters” The vote was unanimous at 9:13AM to accept this motion.
- A new nomination paper and petition receipt was reviewed by the board. The new receipt replaces the reference to “Town Clerk” with “Registrars of Voters”.
- The Board reviewed the Voter Registration Project with regard to past results and future action.
- There were 16 new registrations from the Sept. mailing.
- The board decided to continue the program. Lynne presented a list of 32 residents that will turn 18 by the may 9th Town Election.
- Claire will tweak the letter used in the previous mailing to reflect new registration dates.
- Anne will print copies of the letter with mailing labels and give to Lynne for mailing. The mailing will be done the first week of March.
- The 2011 town Political Calendar was distributed for review.
- Lynne noted that there is a change in the Nomination paper deadline to bring the calendar in line with Mass General Law. The deadline for taking out nomination papers is now the day the nomination papers are due to the Registrars. Historically the Town has been using a schedule based on the acceptance of a Mass General Law, Chapter 53, Section 9A. Under this law the deadline for picking up nomination papers would be 4 days prior to submission of the papers to the Registrars. Lynne verified with the Elections Commission that Princeton had not accepted this MGL, and therefore should change the deadline for taking out nomination papers as cited above.
- It was noted that the start of the 2012 Presidential Election cycle was in Sept. of 2011
- Lynne brought up the topic of recounts. A seminar was held at the Municipal Clerks Association Conference in early February about how to manage the recount process. The Registrars are in charge of the process; Lynne will distribute the presentation from that conference to all the Registrars.
- The discussion of recounts brought up the topic of election staffing. Lynne discussed the need for election officer training prior to the upcoming Presidential election cycle. There has been training in the past, but there will be a stepped up effort for the 2012 cycle. There are constant changes/additions to election procedures, and the election officers need a refresh before major elections. Lynne stated that attendance at a training session will be mandatory for the 2012 cycle, and she will try to schedule multiple sessions to accommodate the election officers. Also discussed were the officers that count the write-in ballots at the end of the night. Both officers are Unenrolled, but the feeling was that they have done an excellent job for many years, and there was no need to replace them with officers enrolled in the two major parties.
- Update on the search for a new Registrar.
- Lynne sent a note (2/8) to Faith Pistrang, Chair of the Republican Town Committee, to request a list of possible candidates to replace Betty Lawson. Betty has been on the committee for 10 years and would like to step down. Her appointment ends on 3/31/12.
- There was concern about the function of the committee without Betty’s replacement, but the law states that a member is still active until a replacement is found.
- Lynne will follow up letter with a call to Faith this week.
- The Board of Registrar information is now on the Town website under the Town Clerk’s office. Lynne will look into changing it to be a stand alone committee
- Lynne completed the end of the year cleanup of inactive voters in Dec. 2010. Voters who have been inactive through two Federal Election cycles are deleted from the voter roles. There were 78 voters deleted. A Final Notice of Removal was sent to each deleted voter. Lynne keeps the returned envelopes received as many of those on the list have already moved from Town.
- Some voters eligible for deletion were missed in the December deletion activity. Lynne will be deleting these voters over the next week. Final Notice of Removal will be sent to all.
- 2011 Census results are good so far. Approximately 300 forms have not been sent back. Lynne will do a second mailing the first week of March.
- A motion was made and seconded to dissolve the meeting. Vote was unanimous to dissolve at 10:12AM.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynne Grettum, Clerk
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