Board of Registrars - Regular Meeting

Welcome the new year. Yeah. Yes. So, uh, welcome to the board of registars meeting. It's January 12th at 10 a.m. 10:04 a.m. And, um, let's see. We are going to look at the minutes from last meeting and uh which was held on um November 10th. Um so was there any comments or concerns or feedback that people have on the minutes?

No. Nothing on the Nothing on the minutes. I felt they were in order myself. So, okay. All right. So, do we have a motion to approve the minutes? I make a motion to approve the minutes from November 10th, 2025. Okay. Any comments? Nope. Okay. So, approved. Perfect. All right. Thank you, Amy, for putting those together. Thank you. Um, may I speak to the next one? Sure.

Okay. So, on December 11th, we got an email from the Secretary of State's office, the elections division that they were going to implement the new program. Um, it was supposed to be up today. They shut it down on Friday and they postponed it till tomorrow. We have six training classes um scheduled between, you know, the next two weeks. after classes. So they did a highle overview where they just showed us what the screen looked like but no real training. So and the programs that up today. Can we just review for you know for the record what what exactly that involves.

So it's called the VI which is the voter registration system. And so in that it has all of the residents and their voter information. And I'm able to pull extracts from that to for elections and the town meeting. I'm able to create the street listing for that. I was create able to create an extract for the census for that. Okay. And so all of the data is in there for the voters for the telegraph to be. Okay. So, so that helps you in terms of determining um voter registration. Yes. Okay.

We also put in like the elections. We report the data and the state will put in their own elections and we report the data from the elections. So it's also referred to as as the VRIS system as well. Okay. I wasn't sure if it was going to change names with the new I don't um is there at some point can we get trained as registars on that system as well just to have familiarity of how it works or Yep. So, I don't have much information yet. So, I know when they originally rolled it out like a year ago, there was supposed to be a tier for registers. I'm just It's kind of wait and see right now. Okay.

Yep. So, I will keep you posted on thing. So, you really haven't seen it yet? No. So, you don't really know the changes either that occurred with it, right? Okay. Yeah. We we had just gotten an overview from Candy like a year ago just of what they expected it to look like, but no one Yeah, he knew. So, well, that'll be interesting. That's good news. See it and uh I definitely would be interested in the training. Sure. I will keep you posted on that. Good. Great.

All right. Um Okay. And um we had last um meeting kind of broached the subject of meeting with the um select board and uh so do you want to cover that? Yes. So I just reached out to Evan in an email and he said if I wanted to be on the agenda he could put me on on the 20th. If we want to change the date I can certainly ask that we do that but I thought I'd just hold my spot. Yeah. Okay. Well, I' I would like to be at that meeting, too, but I can't make 20th. I'll ask him to bump it to November or I mean November. February.

February. Okay. Wow. You have a busy year. Yeah, I do. So, I'll I I'll ask him if he can move it. Okay. Yeah. I I'm not leaving my cruise ship, so Oh, nice. No, you don't want to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Thank you. Um, one thing related to that cuz Oh, we're just going to go over the political calendar with them. Yes.

Um, so I had a couple things on that. When I look at the political calendar, um, I see because this this is like a reformulated from the last draft that we had the last meeting. So, which it looks nice. Um, uh, that has the last day to request an absentee ballot under the annual election. That's an in-person ballot, I believe. It is. Okay. Cuz I know the other two said in person ballot. So, okay. So, I just forgot to read in person on there. Where is uh under annual towel election? The last item for May 18th. Okay. I'll make that. Thank you.

Yeah. And then so that brought up my uh that brought up just the regular absentee ballot application. Um when is that due to apply for an absentee ballot because it looked like it was the fifth business day before the election. It is. So it's the same as the vote by mail. Oh, it is. Okay. So vote by mail and absentee. Okay. Um, so you can add just add the word absentee. That'd be great.

Um, and then the other thing was when you need to return the absentee ballot, which I understand is by the close of the polls, right? So, it either has to be received by the mail by the close of the polls or in in person to drop it off if Okay. So, I didn't know if that Well, we can add that on needed to be added for Yeah. I don't know.

I I don't I don't know that we want to add that because there's several dates like the vote by mail, you know, depending on how they receive it. UACava. I don't want to list all those dates. The states are all on the website. Okay. So, this is just more of the political Okay. All right. Nope, that's fine. Yeah, it's good. Okay. Well, maybe that's something we can cover in our um uh next agenda item. Yeah. regarding uh how we communicate these things. Yeah.

As a election process. So Okay. Well, thank you for that. Um you'll let us know about the the uh February select board meeting around. Yep. Okay.

Great. All right. So our next agenda item is uh a followup from last meeting as well regarding um how to promote transparency in the whole election process. and we had talked about um putting together a um uh some sort of a PSA um training or not training but PSA um uh video of how um the election process occurs here in Grafton and all the steps along the way. Mhm.

So, um you know that's something that uh we you had u we had laid out in the in the agenda about um how we train election workers, recruit them and train them um the uh timing of election events and when like we were just talking about and uh and the oversight which I think is important if how ballot are counted and um you know how the state is involved in that process and and um what the town has to do to make sure that happens. Um and what your role is in all of that as the town clerk. Uh and then talking about us our role as the board of registars and how um these these meetings are intended to kind of provide oversight on that and uh to be part of the process where it's appropriate. So um and uh to allow the community to come forward too to be part of the process,

right? With the whole idea of transparency and communication. So how we go about doing all that is the question. um with with uh the the the kind of the vision that that uh I had was that um it would be somehow recorded for not just this election but maybe provided as a tool for the community that could be regularly shown on uh public access right table. Well, we can do that.

We can we can do it. I I mean, what is your vision for that? Do you have a um Well, I was thinking that um you know, if if it's if there's something recorded, people can access it at any point, if they have a question about like what what's going on with the election because there's a lot of misinformation out there, I think, in in the general media. Sorry. Needed to get my camera. Sorry. And um you know I think for our little part of the world here

um it's important I think to um that people if they have questions about the election and I think this this election because there's so much polarization it could be contentious and I think to be able to have um a video that people can look at and say okay yeah That's how we do it here in Grafton. And we're part of a larger effort that is monitored by the state and participating so that there there isn't, you know, kind of any question about the what's going on here.

I don't What do you think, Lisa? Yeah, I mean I I think anything that would make the residents of Grafton feel more comfortable with how we do things and that it is, you know, there are checks and balances and they are being followed and there's, you know, I think it just gives them confidence that what's happening in town is what should happen. Yeah. Okay. Well, we can I can work with the public access and then get back to you with some options that we can do. I did some powerpoints and we can do the voice on those. All those links are clickable so people can see that and there are several um of the steps along the way where it is open to the public and it is posted in advance.

Yeah, I think it's good to use um a voice over with slides. That way if something changes, regulations change, you can at least change the information easily for you know with just having the slides with a voice. Mhm. Um because that's going to happen in the future. The one thing that we had mentioned um topics was how to find election and town meeting dates on the website. The other thing that I've always struggled with is how to find the official unofficial and official election results on the website. It never seems to be easy to find. And I know a lot of the website pages are down right now. I don't know if they're doing I've been updating our website. Have you looked at it recently?

Yeah, yesterday I was Yeah. No. So, um I'm eliminating a bunch of the options along the side to make it easier. So, um Oh, good. What about the first page? Was it readable to you of the elections for 2026? I have the town meeting and the election with all the links to click to how to register if you want to ballot. And so I think all the results are on the side, but that's where they'll remain. So it will and I think they're all labeled whether they're the official or the unofficial from the ones that I posted. Yeah, I think it just needs to be one of the things on the side election results

and just have its own because you look under election information but that doesn't have results stuff or if it is I know I found it before but it was buried. It was really really I it was Yeah. So if it's something that can be easier. So I'm working on that. So okay we'll we can um Yeah, maybe at the next meeting maybe we can just look at the website. Yeah. No, I saw a bunch of pages down. I'm like oh I bet she's working on this. So no that yeah that'd be great. Okay thanks. Yeah I think it's an ongoing process too you know to kind of you make this uh as easily accessible all around the information you know. Yes. About what we do and how we do it. Yes. So

or even like when like when are unofficial results generally posted you know if they're not posted until 10:00. Okay. Well then wait until 10 o'clock. You know just expectations. So, Mhm. Okay. Yes. Good points. So, if um if you need help with that, you know, it would be an educational process for us too to make sure that we're on the same page with everything and yes, um you know, maybe we can set a time to do that too to that. That's great. Absolutely. Okay. But

what about did did you have any feedback on the pages? Yeah, I had a little trouble. One of No, actually one of the print You need a copy, John? Yes. Here you go. The orange page that says vote wouldn't work. Oh, that's too dark. It No, no, it actually did something where the printer wouldn't even print it. It It canceled my print job alto together. So, I started printing individual pages and I realized that was the culprit for some reason. I have no idea. Well, you probably have no more ink left now.

Um, so yeah. No, I think as a first draft of this stuff, you know, this is this is, you know, great kind of information that that uh Yes. Yeah. think that uh we could add to the educational

good. Yeah. So, no, I think something along those lines is good. Okay. And I like the, you know, when you have the link, if if it's it's if it's also available as the presentation with links as you're going through it, you can click to dig down into more information as you go. Okay, do that.

Good. All right. just keep us posted and let us know what you need. Okay. Yeah. How how can we be involved in that process? All right. Great. If you're willing to do that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You know, yeah, doesn't have to be all on your shoulders. So, yeah. Well, thank you. Just let me know. Definitely. Okay. We'll just keep working on it. Good. Great.

Okay. Now, the next agenda item is what what our overall strategy is for the year. Um okay. So what is our overall strategy for the year? So I put together some dates to remember of some things that are the responsibility of the board of registars. So um we'll have to have a meeting in March um to make a recommendation about inperson early voting. Okay. Then I put the dates that we would be counting the Yukaba ballots. Okay.

And if we have to do a recount, we'll determine that. Mhm. The signing of the nomination and papers and um for the um local election. We did appoint Mike and Todd as the assistant register. So they'll just continue to stamp those um with their initials, too. Yeah. And then if there's any residency issues, we'll deal with those. Um, so to get more involved, if you want to help cover the office for the extra hours, my I'll be there, but you can come and receive um voter registration if someone comes in person to do it. Okay, great.

Yeah. So, yeah, sure. So, I wrote the dates of that and then uh the street listing, your name's on it. So at we'll just do a meeting in June or July when that is um starting to be prepared so you can review that. Mhm. And how the street listing books. So how do you go about reviewing that and how it's a list of all the voter voter registration addresses for the whole town. Right. So

Right. Yeah. It's I mean I I spot checked some of them um with you know an extract but a vendor creates that list and it's pretty I mean it's from an extract so but I did notice for 2024 your name was spelled incorrectly on Oh really? Yeah. So little things like that we can check. Okay. Sounds good.

Okay. Good. That looks great. All right. Um so, so it seems like then that what this is, um you'll let us know then on what we need to get involved with in this whole process here. Okay, good. All right. Um, thank you for putting that together. That's great. And now we have uh an annual report that we have to do for the board of registars.

Yes. So, I did copy basically what you'd had last year except for the numbers on there were um not correct. Okay. And so I that's the handout I gave you today with the updated numbers. Okay. had a couple minor things on it. Um, report for the board of registers. The first, the first paragraph, uh, second line from the bottom, prepare and publish a listing. It says public. Oh, just a typo. Thank you. Been there, done that. M

um and then the next paragraph there were a total of I had six meetings last year instead of eight I think we had eight the year before so I don't know if it was just left from the count and I thought okay yeah okay um I think you're right I think it was six

and let's your um I had a note uh for the next item. Pursuant to the voters act of 2022, the board of registars did not recommend hosting in person early voting for the annual town election to the select board. Um, but I thought maybe we needed to add or keep the statement that talked about mailin for local elections. Um, happened because it's mandated by state. I know we had something in there before so that it was clear that we would didn't have in-person voting, but we still had the mail and voting for the local elections.

Okay. I think there was something in there last year. Okay.

To that effect, too. Um and then uh down near the bottom you had the cross out of all results and actions taken at the town meeting were permanently recorded in the office of the town clerk. And then also the next line about uh removing the campaign finance reporting and I think you had said it was crossed out because items uh are not within the purview of the board of registars. Um, it's not in it's not our responsibility, but it's because we mentioned up above that with the annual town election, the election results were certified and reported to the state of Massachusetts by the town clerk. I think it's I thought it was an interesting statement that was in there um last year that all resorts and actions of the town meeting where people are there and voting just like a town election are also you know what happens to all that that that they are recorded in town clerk's office.

So that is actually not a function of the board of registars but it is a function of the town clerk. So it would go on the clerk's page because there's two reports. There's the town clerk page and the board regist page. So you're just moving it from one to the other. So but the election results is considered a board registar. Yes. Because those are certified. Yes. Okay. So that's certified but but the votes of the town meeting aren't part of your uh board registers. Okay. And the office of campaign financing is my responsibility not the board registers. Okay. Nope. That makes sense. Mhm.

All right. Okay. All right. Should I continue on? I for the next page. Um the other things I had just kind of the other other events of note kind of things. Um we mentioned Rachel Gerson as the new board member. However, we don't have you in there as being the new town clerk and part of the board. So, we need to add you and your name in there. And I don't know what your official appointment date was. March something.

Well, thank you. Yep. I didn't even think of that. I'll add that in. So, yeah, I think I think we need to add you there. So, um and we also had a change in the chair. So, I don't know if we should put that in there. Um, right. Oh, yeah. change of officers that Yeah. Yep. generally cuz you're vice chair. Yes. So I was vice chair, you're now vice chair. So just yeah mention Yeah. change officers officers when Dan retired. Um

the only other items that I would think of uh events of note is we had mentioned um you know basically what other things registars had done in the past and uh the past year last year and the new thing that one of the only new things that we did not new things but the only things we did in 2025 was the pole worker training. Um, I don't know. Did you attend the pole worker training this past year? I was there. It was April, two years ago. Yeah. So, I attended last year's, but I wasn't sure if you had No, I did not go to the the last one. Um, so that was on April 2nd.

Um, I'll add it in. Okay. And then the last item I have was I think we need to add a statement about how the the terms are are as officers how our term date changed last year. Okay. So a suggestion something along the effects of um on March 31st the board of registar members were notified that their term expiration was being reduced by 3 months from June 30th to March 31st to be in compliance with MGL. Okay. So I might I'll write a statement to that effect.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Yeah. No problem. Lisa, I know. I I actually spent time yesterday, did my homework. Yeah, great job on that draft. Well, thanks for your input. Yeah, no problem. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Okay, so um All right. So, the next item was the uh census. Um I got my census last week. Good to hear. Yep. We are receiving them and we um are doing opening them. If they have a dog payment, they stay intact till that dog payment is taken care of. Then they're sorted into the three piles which no change, minor change, and a major change which would require communication with.

Okay. And so that's all set up in the office. If you want to see it, it's kind of beautiful, but it's working great. So we have a lot of senior volunteers that are slicing the envelopes for us and it's working out great. I had a question just on a personal note, um, which I wonder does it affect anything? I don't think so. But um you know my wife's name is her maiden name, so she got a census report too for the same household.

Yeah, that happens a lot. And maybe it'll be better in the new system. I'm not sure, but it's called head of household. And sometimes if like she were to renew her driver's license, it wouldn't come through to us um that you're in the same household if you have a different last name. Okay. And the household is like you could have several Yeah. different households in the same at the same address. It just has more to do with the last name. Okay. So, we can combine them. Sometimes people will tell us on the census and we combine them. They probably were originally together, but you just renewed your driver's license at a different time. So, then updated her registration and then that's how it becomes. Oh, that's how it kicked in. Okay. Mhm.

It doesn't really matter, I guess, as I think. Right. It doesn't matter, but if it's on one sheet, it's one less That's true. Save paper and and postage. That's true. That's true. So, that could be something that Yep. We could we can take care of that. Okay. But not today. Not today. Systems down. Tomorrow, we're gonna do it. No problem. I just didn't know how widespread it was. It happens um typically when we get the registration from the Yeah. driver's license renewal. Yeah. So, that wasn't an issue in the past. That that's only become an issue once the motor vehicle Yes.

changed over so that you're automatically registered to vote through the motor vehicles. Okay. Yeah, that does kind of add a layer of um difficulty, right? So it's smart enough to take her name off of your sheet. Yeah. And create it on its own. Is that correct? So she's not on your sheet. No, she's just Yeah. Yeah. But it still appears on the screen as everybody in that address. It's just they call it head of household as well. Yeah. Okay. So it doesn't it's not going to impact anything. No. Yeah. All right. Well, we'll deal with it when we get to it.

All right. Um let's see. So, I guess we made it through the agenda there, huh? We did good. Yeah. Um Um I think that the only other agenda item not here is followup um that was uh brought up by uh in public comment last last time regarding uh the Democratic

Oh, yep. town committee and um so I did my due diligence and followed up with the Democratic Town Committee chair and former chair um to make sure that we are uh complying with what what the state has to say about um recording who's part of the Democratic Town Committee or Republican Town Committee, whatever you know, that that process and um and that the signatures are on there and that it's being sent to the correct places. So, um, uh, I guess they're they're working on, uh, sending it to, um, we've got the the town, um, list together and, um, now that they they've got to get the signatures and and send it out to the appropriate places, including the town clerk.

So, they're working on it. Yeah. And it should be it should be available this week if it was supposed to be done today. So um but I will follow up on it. Um uh let's see. I forget Dan Kosher the uh previous chair um noted that the copies of the form need to be sent to four places. is the office of campaign and political finance, the secretary of commonwealth, state party and local town clerk. Um, so, uh, we will make sure that that gets done. Great. Thank you. Okay. They are actively working on that.

So, who's the new chair if Dan was the old chair? Um, does it have to be elected like uh they did. Yeah. So is Irene H is our new chair and um she was uh took over last spring. So Oh yeah. And um I know she she's been really stretched out with her new job and stuff, so things kind of did fall off the plate there a little bit, but we're going to get it done. Great. Thank you.

Okay. All right. So, I guess the next uh we have to figure out when we're going to meet again and then we'll go into the public comment piece. Um so we um you know as a board meeting we've been meeting like once every few months but considering our calendar um we have to put keep that in play here. Yeah. If if we're going to meet with the board of select men in February, do we need to meet before that? Yes. Okay.

Definitely. We need to figure out what we're going to be presenting and uh the date as well. So, um do you want me to get a couple dates from Evan, send them to you, and then set a meeting after that? Yeah. And then we can set the meeting to to uh you know, figure out what we're going to talk about at the meeting. Sounds good.

Okay. Very good. So, okay. We'll wait on that and I guess we uh move into the public comment. Uh is there um anybody in the audience that would like to have a public comment? Oh, Mr. Fitzgerald. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Uh my name is Dan Fitzgerald's uh 11 Patricia Drive. Uh when I spoke at the last board of registars meeting on November 10th in 2025, I'd asked if the two Democrat registars on this board would attempt to persuade the Grafton Dem Grafton Democratic Town Committee to file an up-to-date statement of organization with both the Grafton Town Clerk's Office and the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance as required under Mass General law chapter 52 section 5. Although two month has two months has passed and no updated statement has been filed. I wanted to thank the uh board of registar chair John Bonina for letting me know yesterday that he has been in touch with Grafton DCT DCC chair Irene HL in the updated form is apparently still being worked on. Uh secondly, as I reviewed the draft of the 2025 year and report of the board of registars in today's meeting packet, I noticed the emission of event that had a clear impact on this board in March of 2025. That event was the town administrator's action to officially reduce the terms of office of all the appointed registars at that time by three months. As he stated in his letter to me on March 31st, 2025, an era has a has come to our attention in e in the expiration date of your term as a member of the board of registars. Under Mass General Law section 15 uh I'm sorry under section 15 of Mass General Laws

chapter 51 registars shall be appointed for terms of 3 years beginning April 1st as the town cannot appoint its registars from a different term than provided by state law. Your term on the board of registars must expire on March 31st of 2025. Again I received that letter on March 31st of 2025. Despite all regist all three registars possessing appointment letters indicating our terms would run through June of our last appointed year, Evan Brassard was seemingly forced to invalidate those letters and cut short the terms of all three registars by 3 months. In effect, I received roughly 8 hours notice I was being removed from the board of registars after having faithfully served on this board for over 3 years. The other two registars also had their terms shortened 3 months. Now all terms for the appointed registars run from April 1st to March 31st in a given year. I believe some reference to this action and subsequent change should be included in the board's 2025 year and report. Thank you for the time. Um I appreciate these two items were addressed so at the meeting today. So I do appreciate that. So thank you.

Thank you. All right. So well I guess that that there are no more public comments. Guess that will conclude our meeting for January 12th board registars. Um do I have a motion to adjourn? I make a motion to uh adjourn our meeting today January 12th at 10:42. Second. Bye. All in favor?