Northborough Board postpones Town Meeting and Annual Town Election

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Northborough Board postpones Town Meeting and Annual Town ElectionBy Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter

Northborough – Northborough is the latest town to postpone its annual town election and annual town meeting (ATM), due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Those decisions were made at the April 13 Board of Selectmen meeting, which was held remotely with Town Moderator Fred George, Town Clerk Andy Dowd and Finance Director Jason Little also participating.

The town election, scheduled for Tuesday, May 12, will now be held Tuesday, June 30. The ATM, scheduled for Monday, April 27, will now be held a month later, on Wednesday, May 27.

“We were waiting for the legislature and the Governor to pass appropriate acts that would allow us to effectively postpone Town Meeting…” Town Administrator John Coderre said.

Under the new legislation passed on April 3 municipalities may move the date by 30 days, thus the new May 27 date. That date may be pushed out even further (in 30 day increments) if need be.

Coderre also said the pushing out Town Meeting will be helpful as the town gains further information about what economic impact COVID-19 will have on the state’s fiscal year 2021  budget.

“As John said, it certainly made sense to have the Warrant and the Town Meeting ‘locked and loaded’ so to speak,” George said. He then recommended continuing the ATM to May 27.

The Board agreed to do so unanimously.

The Board then proceeded to discuss postponing the Annual Town Election. Jason Perreault, Board Chair, recused himself because he is on the ballot for re-election.

Coderre explained that Chapter 53 of the Acts of 2020 also provides the option for towns to postpone annual elections to a date on or before June 30.

Coderre said that because all precinct polling places are at the same location it would be deemed unsafe to hold it in May.  A law has been passed to allow early voting by mail in local elections being held on or before June 30. Voters will have this option so this will give the town enough time to communicate the process to the voters.

Dowd recommended postponing the election to June 30.

“This makes a lot of sense to me to extend it as far as possible…” agreed Selectman Leslie Rutan as did the other members of the Board who then unanimously voted in favor.

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