The Hanover Select Board is seeking legal guidance after two citizen petition articles were submitted after the official deadline for the upcoming Annual Town Meeting warrant. Board members debated the issue at length during a recent meeting, weighing concerns about fairness and process against the possibility of legal challenges if the petitions are rejected.
The board ultimately did not take action on whether the articles will appear on the warrant. Instead, members agreed to consult town counsel before deciding whether to reopen the warrant and consider the late submissions.
The two petitions were filed nearly two weeks after the Select Board’s previously announced deadline for warrant articles.
Greg Satterwhite, a member of the Select Board, argued that the town should adhere to the published timeline.
“So Madam Chair, I would just like to say that since I'm not in the position of armed chair quarterback anymore, I pulled papers and I ran, I would like to express my opinion that we should not be allowing articles on our annual town meeting warrant that did not follow proper procedure,” Satterwhite said.
The deadlines, which were unanimously approved by the Select Board, had been posted on the town’s website earlier in the year, stating that articles for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting would be accepted until noon on Jan. 26.
Satterwhite said the deadlines were clearly communicated and should be enforced.
“I think that statement is perfectly clear that there is a deadline of exactly noon on those dates,” he said.
Other board members agreed the situation raised fairness concerns but said rejecting the petitions outright could create additional complications.
Select Board member Vanessa O’Connor said she believed the articles had been submitted late but warned that refusing to place them on the warrant could lead to legal challenges.
“I think it's unlikely that if the petitioners of these articles were to make a legal challenge, that that challenge would not succeed,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor also noted that if the petitions were excluded from the Annual Town Meeting, residents could instead pursue a special town meeting, which would carry additional costs for the town.
“I’m really just trying to balance fairness with practicality at this point,” she said.
The discussion also focused on whether accepting late petitions could set a precedent for future Town Meeting warrants.
Select Board member Rachel Hughes said allowing late submissions could undermine the expectations set for residents who followed the timeline.
“If we were to open this and accept people who turned their things in late and didn't follow the policy, we really should have let everybody else know that they had that opportunity,” Hughes said.
She added that residents who believed they had missed the deadline may not have pursued their own petition articles.
“There could have been people who were following the rules that thought they missed it and so didn't continue and didn't push it,” Hughes said.
Because of the uncertainty surrounding the bylaws and warrant procedures, the board agreed to seek clarification from town counsel before deciding how to proceed.
The two late petition articles involve issues that have already been debated in Hanover in recent months.
The first article is a revised version of a proposal that appeared at Hanover’s December Special Town Meeting. That earlier measure sought to establish a formal process allowing voters to remove elected officials from office before the end of their term.
At that meeting, petitioner Walter Dixon asked Town Meeting members to pass over the article so the proposal could be revised and potentially brought back at a future meeting. Voters agreed to take no action at that time.
The second late petition article would change how members of the town’s Advisory Committee are appointed.
The proposal would remove the town moderator’s authority to appoint members to the committee, which serves as Hanover’s finance advisory board and reviews all warrant articles before Town Meeting.
Both articles could still appear on the Annual Town Meeting warrant if the Select Board ultimately decides to reopen the warrant after receiving legal guidance.