photo/submitted
By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – Shrewsbury will head to the polls for their annual municipal election, Tuesday, May 1. Voter turnout is predictably low for a municipal election and this year could be particularly so because there aren’t any ballot questions and races are largely uncontested.
This year the turnout is expected to be much lower than the average of 25-28 percent.
“Initially, there did not seem to be a lot of interest this year as far as people taking out nomination papers, but due to quite a few people spreading the word that we were short of candidates for town meeting membership, a number of people stopped in just a few days before deadline and took out papers…” stated Sandra Wright, Shrewsbury Town Clerk.
Town Moderator Christopher G. Mehne, Selectman James F. Kane, and School Committee member Jonathan N. Wensky, are all seeking re-election in uncontested races.
Mindy J. McKenzie and Kathleen Curran McSweeney are both vying for one five-year term position on the Shrewsbury Housing Authority.
Clare M. O’Connor is seeking re-election while Dean C. Gillam and Deborah P. Lebeaux are each seeking one of the three three-year terms on the Shrewsbury Board of Library Trustees. Jeffrey M. Billingham is the only candidate to fill a one-year term vacancy.
Because of the last minute flurry of activity before the March 13 deadline to submit papers, several of the precincts now have real Town Meeting races. They include Precincts one, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. Precincts four and nine each have one-year vacancies to fill. However, Precincts two, three and five are uncontested. Precinct four is still short one candidate and is ripe for a write-in candidate.
The deadline to withdraw papers is Thursday, March 29. The deadline to register to vote in Shrewsbury’s municipal election is Wednesday, April 11. For more information and to find polling places, visit the Town Clerk’s webpage https://shrewsburyma.gov/327/Town-Clerk.
