Select Board sets special election for February 2

Voters will head to the polls early next year to fill a vacancy left by Select Board member Mary Hartman’s departure.

Candidates have until December 15 to submit nomination papers for the February 2 special election, per a schedule that Town Clerk Kaari Mai Tari presented at the Select Board’s October 19 meeting. 

Hartman resigned October 10, citing family reasons.

Tari pushed for a February 9 vote. The Select Board went with February 2, with some members emphasizing the urgency of getting the group back to its full membership of five. 

“It is a timely thing,” board Clerk Cameron McKennitt said. 

The special balloting will cost roughly $25,000, slightly more than an annual town election, Tari told The Acton Bridge. 

State law would have allowed a vote as early as December 22. Even the February 2 date, Tari warned, carries the risk of bottlenecks from a surge in vote-by-mail requests or registration changes. 

The special election will come at the busiest time of the year for the Town Clerk’s Office as staff handle census returns and annual dog licensing. The office will require extra staffing to manage the added workload, Tari said. 

Select Board Chair Wendy Rovelli said she’s thinking ahead to decisions the group must make while it’s still vulnerable to deadlocked votes. 

“The biggest one is the tax rate hearing,” she said, previewing discussions next month about setting the tax rate and extending, adjusting, or abandoning Acton’s controversial residential tax exemption.