By Dave Lunger
The following statement was delivered to the Acton Select Board on February 26, 2024.
I want to raise a matter involving Acton Voter Registrars, that places the town in the untenable situation of being in direct violation of multiple MGL’s.
Twelve months ago, two Voter registrars resigned, myself and Tom Beals. In Tom’s resignation he stated, “I will soon take on the role of Treasurer for a Town Committee. Under Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) rules, I must, and do hereby, resign as an Acton Registrar of Voters”. Nominated for these two vacancies were Republican-enrolled Jim Conboy and Unenrolled voter Tim Shea. The Board voted unanimously its approval on April third.
Nine months later the Town Clerk’s office requested stipend-payment tax information. Jim Conboy’s intention was to be a volunteer for Acton, and seeing requests for Social Security information as an invasion of privacy, Jim made known his desire to forgo the stipend. The Clerk’s office saw a stipend as a fixed requirement. Jim’s tenure as Registrar was terminated.
A month later, I was made aware of this issue with a Clerk’s request for a new nomination. Seeing the problem revolved around volunteering and privacy, I worked the issue, talking to the Secretary of State’s office, registrar practices of neighbor Town Clerks, numerous Acton personnel, one in fact forgoing their own stipend, and was in the process of discussing the issue with Acton HR. I learned that there is no statute requiring registrars be paid a stipend, some towns have purely volunteer registrars, and a neighbor town has a mixture of paid and not paid.
While the privacy and stipend issue was being worked, where I was trying to connect and get answers with many phone calls and in-person HR visits, while seeking a rationale as to why the town sees the stipend as mandatory and I was getting the runaround with non-responses, the SB meeting of January 22 unanimously appointed Democrat Town Committee Treasurer Robert Ferrara as a registrar.
This created an untenable situation:
MGL Ch 55 Section 5, “a member of a board of registrars of voters … in any… town shall not serve as… treasurer”, Acton is in breach of this statute with a Registrar that is treasurer of a political party committee.
MGL Ch 51 Section 20, directs that vacancies, even unwarranted ones, replacements shall be “of the same political party as the member whose position he is appointed to fill”. Acton replaced a Republican with a Democrat.
MGL Ch 51 Section 18, “registrars of voters shall be so appointed that the members of the board shall represent the two leading political parties”. The current makeup in Acton are 2 Unenrolled and 2 Democrat registrars, with no Republican representation whatsoever.
From the Secretary of State document ‘Boards of Registrars and Election Commissions’, “The board must always contain, as nearly as possible, representatives of the two leading political parties as defined in chapter 50, section 1…”
The remedy that would correct these MGL violations and show respect for the privacy concerns of the affected registrar would be his reinstatement as a volunteer without stipend. This leaves in place the Acton Registrar requirements for substance, ethics, and standards of conduct policies, while recognizing as unnecessary the W-4, I-9, M-4 and direct deposit rules.
Thank you in-advance for considering and implementing a prompt resolution to this matter.
Coincidentally, prior to Mr. Lunger’s statements, another Acton resident resigned from volunteer boards and committees because of a conflict of interest, demonstrating this is common among residents with morals who believe in fairness. Will Mr. Ferrara resign or the Town correct this conflict even though voting has already begun?
Good news, hat-tip to the Town in moving to resolve this issue and remove the Mass General Laws (MGLs) violations.
The original registrar, merely concerned for his privacy rights, is in the process of being re-instated as a pure volunteer to the town of Acton.
It is disappointing that the town of Acton has chosen to subvert the laws of Massachusetts in order to further the political views of a few Select Board members. This is another example of being railroaded just like the Prop 2-1/2 override attempt.
Well written story, but perhaps a neutral party could do some fact checking. Seems there are political winds inflating these sails. The residents of Acton deserve non-partisan boards.
I agree that “political winds” are helping inflate the sails here. Consider that generally Acton’s volunteer committees are and should be non-partisan, as they make up a vital part of our local government with specific tasks and members with vital skill sets. Also, generally, these committee’s new members are vetted by the Volunteer Coordinating Committee, then submitted to the SB for final approval.
However, the process for Registrars is somewhat different and by-nature partisan, as representation from BOTH Democrats AND Republicans act as checks and balances at the local level in *partisan* elections. So much so, that the rules governing boards of Registrars are written by statute in the Mass General Laws (MGL’s), as outlined in my above write-up, specifying the various violations.