Election nuts and bolts on warrant

Voting date could move to account for Juneteenth

BY KRIS OLSON

Compared to a proposal to extend the terms of members of the Select Board to three years, three other Town Meeting articles that would tweak the way local elections are administered may prove to be less controversial.

In Article 53, the secondto-last article on the warrant, resident Jonathan Lederman is proposing that the town accept the provisions of a state law, G.L.c. 53, §9A, which would clarify that the final date for obtaining blank nomination papers for nomination to town office shall be “48 weekday hours” prior to the hour on which nomination papers are required to be submitted for certification.

Lederman told the Current that his article may get amended before Town Meeting, as there are lingering questions about the overlap between the deadline he is proposing to move and some

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That constant need to campaign is hardly conducive to long-term planning, Zisson believes.

Having brought a similar proposal to Town Meeting two years ago, Zisson said he can already anticipate some of the objections.

He stressed that his proposal is in no way a referendum on the current Select Board.

“It’s really about doing a better job [in general],” he said.

The other issue many have with three-year terms is tradition.

“Marblehead has been electing selectmen to one-year terms for 374 years,” he expects to hear.

But when that first Select Board was elected in 1649, the life expectancy was about 38 years old, and “committing one year of one’s life was a big deal,” he said.

Moreover, the town has eschewed tradition when circumstances have demanded it or society has evolved, Zisson added. The number of Select Board members was once seven, for example. In addition, women had not been allowed to attend the first Town Meeting, he noted.

Zisson said he has also heard the argument that one-year terms are good because they force the Select Board members to be out talking with their constituents. But he views this suggestion as something of a red herring. Even Select Board members elected to three-year terms would be welladvised to keep abreast of the townspeople’s concerns, Zisson said.

He suggested that having three-year terms would also be healthier for the Select Board members themselves, as it would of the other election-related deadlines.

His intent, he said, is to give people more time — 12 days, to be exact — to decide to pull papers to run for office.

Lederman noted that G.L.c. 53, §9A could have been adopted back in 2019, when Town Meeting voters approved a bylaw change that moved Marblehead’s town election from the “Tuesday after the second Monday in May” to the “third Tuesday after the first Monday in June.” The change was designed to eliminate the need to hold two separate elections to choose members of town boards and commissions and decide the fate of proposals to override Proposition 2 1/2 that had gotten the required two-thirds majority vote at Town Meeting.

“It seems like it was an oversight,” he said.

While Lederman had not consulted her before filing his proposed article, Town Clerk Robin Michaud said that allow them to grow into their roles without feeling a sense of urgency to make things happen in a 12-month span.

While the Marblehead Select Board has been stable in recent years, it is a “real possibility” with one-year terms that, at some point, the town’s voters could wipe out an entire incumbent board and elect five new members.

“I’m not sure that would be the best thing for the town,” he said.

Incumbent board split

Among current members of the Select Board, views are divided on the issue of term length. The newer board members support the concept of three-year terms, while the longer-tenured members prefer to retain the one-year terms.

Member Erin Noonan said in an email reply to the Current’s inquiry that she is “very much in favor” of three-year staggered terms.

“Aside from Lowell, which has two-year terms that are all up at the same time, there appears to be no other town in the Commonwealth with this model,” she noted.

Even within Marblehead, only the town moderator and members of the Recreation and Parks Commission are elected annually, she added.

Noonan said she can personally attest to the burden of needing to be in campaign mode constantly, with only brief respites.

“In that respect, it stifles participation in the process, which is not good for democracy,” she wrote. “It’s a significant undertaking for people to be successful, and we need more talented residents to volunteer to participate, not less, in order for our town government to function at an optimal level.”

PrEVENT crEDIT- carD FraUD she could see no reason to object, given that all it does is change the last date to obtain nomination papers, noting that she had confirmed with state officials her understanding of the way G.L.c. 53, §9A would operate.

For example, if its provisions had been adopted prior to the 2023 election, the last day to obtain nomination papers would have been April 27, which would then have to be turned in by the May 1 deadline.

But at least for one more year, residents will still have the opportunity to do something Michaud said she has seen on occasion: people picking up papers on May 1 itself, racing around to gather the necessary signatures and returning the nomination papers later in the day.

“In some ways, it’s easier” if the change were to be adopted, Michaud said.

Clerk’s proposals

Michaud also has two articles

Not only do new members need to get up to speed, but it is also hard to judge anyone’s performance after only eight or nine months on the job, she suggested.

One-year terms inhibit a healthy turnover of leadership because a candidate needs only to land in the top five, rather than win a particular seat, to remain in office.

“Finally, the change would reduce what I jokingly refer to as ‘sign pollution’ every 12 months in this town, which is something I think most people can get behind,” she wrote. Member Alexa Singer agreed with Zisson that a threeyear term would foster the development of long-term strategies and the execution of thoughtful planning.

“Under the current structure, a Select Board member could serve on a committee and be in the middle of a planning phase of a project during an election,” she wrote in an email. “If the member is not re-elected, the entire committee would lose valuable time bringing on a new member.”

She added, “The Select Board should be focusing primarily on the execution of their roles and responsibilities rather than losing momentum with yearly elections.

A three-year term allows for a member of the Select Board to participate in a way that still holds them accountable to the voter, while providing the least disruption to the goals of the town.”

On the other hand, Chair Moses Grader said that, while he does not “come down hard on any one side or the other,” keeping one-year terms comes out ahead when he lines up the pros and cons of each approach.

“The pros are that oneyear terms gives voters the opportunity to grade all the of her own, which propose modest tweaks to election-related procedures. In Article 37, she is asking the town to accept G.L.c. 41, §110A, which would authorize the Town Clerk’s Office to remain closed and treat Saturdays as a legal holiday for the purpose of calculating the time frame for election-related filing.

Adopting Article 37 would affect the last day to register to vote in town elections, which is 10 business days before the election. Taking one Saturday out of the mix would back that deadline up by one day.

The registration deadline for state elections would not be affected because state law requires clerks’ offices to remain open on Saturdays for voter registration as those elections approach, Michaud explained.

Michaud suggested that the availability of online voter registration should help mitigate the minimal impact of officially closing her office on Saturdays.

Her other proposal, Article

Select Board members every year and the opportunity to quickly correct boards that are dysfunctional or are not working well together,” he wrote in an email.

He noted that, despite the short term length, Marblehead Select Boards have counterintuitively been quite stable over time.

“It also keeps members on their toes since they have to run and get a reality check every year,” he wrote.

Grader acknowledged the “cons” of one-year terms — not only the need to campaign constantly but the more difficult task they pose for challengers, at least when there are no open seats to pursue.

“I suppose, too, that a con for some is that the incumbent’s advantage can keep members on the board for too long,” he said.

But at the end of the day, Grader said he believes that there is a reason the town has not abandoned its centuries-old practice of electing Select Board members for one year.

“I think folks generally see the value of being able to change out a board quickly if the board dynamic is not working, while also preserving the option of maintaining continuity of experience by voting for members that they like and think are doing a good job,” he wrote, adding that he believes the annual vote “tends to create consistent incentives for board members to cooperate together and focus on the work of the town.”

Member Jackie Belf-Becker said she has “mixed emotions” about the renewed proposal to extend the Select Board’s terms to three years, noting that she has been open to the idea in the past.

However, given the challenges the town is currently facing, she believes that it would be detrimental not to let the town’s voters decide on the composition of the board every year, at least for the time being.

38, would set the date for the annual town election of town officers a week earlier, moving it to the “second Tuesday after the first Monday in June each year” instead of the third Tuesday.

When the town voted back in 2019 to change the election date, voters could not foresee that the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, would soon gain widespread recognition, including by the federal government, Michaud explained.

As the first paragraph of Chapter 174 of the town bylaws currently stands, the town election would regularly fall either on Juneteenth itself or near it, adding to the challenge and expense of setting up polling places. Holding the town election while schools are still in session and before vacation plans begin to kick in could also make it easier for parents of schoolage children in particular to participate, Michaud noted.

Member Jim Nye could not be reached before the Current’s deadline.

Effect of ‘yes’ vote

If voters at Town Meeting approve Zisson’s proposal, it would take effect for the 2024 election and make the stakes in that election higher than usual. The top two vote-getters in the race for Select Board would receive the initial three-year terms; the next two finishers would get two-year terms at the outset; and the fifth-place finisher would have to run for re-election to a full three-year term in 2025.

If nothing else, Zisson said he is looking forward to the proposal getting a full airing in a more traditional Town Meeting setting. Two years ago, his article was narrowly defeated at the end of a long meeting held outdoors due to the pandemic, after at least some voters had left — not that he is making excuses.

This year, as long as the articles are taken in order, there will be 10 articles behind his, at least some of which should be compelling enough to keep people in their seats.

Zisson said he has also been asked why he did not incorporate the Recreation and Parks Commission in his proposal. He tends to agree that Rec and Parks “would be a good candidate” to shift to three-year terms, too.

But ultimately, he decided it was wiser to take things one step at a time.

“My answer to that is that change happens very slowly in Marblehead,” he said.