MARSHFIELD — A special election to fill a Select Board seat that Trish Simpson left vacant with her resignation in March is now set for July 25, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., per a vote of the Select Board.
The Select Board failed to schedule a special election until a citizen’s petition gained enough signatures to force it to schedule one. It voted to do so in the Board’s first meeting since the May 2 town election, which replaced former member Stephen Darcy with Rick Smith.
In the same meeting, the Select Board voted unanimously to appoint Smith as chair, replacing Kelley.
More movement may come with an election to fill Kelley’s seat after voters submitted a recall petition against him in April, though the Board has not yet scheduled that special election due to objections to the recall filed by six residents, including Kelley, which the Board of Registrars of Voters will review in a public hearing May 22.
Recalling Eric Kelley
After both the town clerk and the Board of Registrars of Voters approved all of the signatures on a recall petition against Kelley, residents filed five objections claiming that some of the signatures were invalid.
When voters submit signatures for a petition, the town clerk’s office certifies each signature, and then the Board of Registrars of Voters approves that certification, Casper said. At a May 22 hearing, objectors will have to prove that the Board should reverse its decision to approve certain signatures.
Stephen Lynch, who was unsuccessful in his bid for a Select Board seat in this year’s annual election, submitted his objection to the recall because he claimed that several signatures were “clearly forgeries.” He also claimed that some petition sheets issued to lead petitioners Lara Brait and Sean Costello lacked the date of the beginning of the drive for signatures, the town seal and the town clerk’s signature, which he said are required by the town charter.
Pam Keith made the same complaint about issuance dates, town seals and town clerk’s signatures about 206 petition sheets. She did not claim that the signatures were forged or given under false pretenses.
Joe Pecevich, another of this year’s unsuccessful candidates for Select Board, also challenged signatures on 206 petition sheets for the lack of issuance dates, town seals and town clerk signatures, plus illegible registrar signatures.
Kelley objected to some signatures that he claimed may have been written by one voter on behalf of another voter. He also argued that the petitioner’s original affidavit for a recall is false because “it is written to imply that… [Kelley] denied the voters of Marshfield their democratic right by refusing to vote in favor of putting a Proposition 2½ operational override on an election ballot.”
“The petitioner's affidavit is false. Eric S. Kelley did not deny anyone's right to a constitutionally guaranteed election,” Kelley’s objection reads.
The original affidavit claimed that Kelley “has unilaterally taken positions and actions related to the Town's budget that effectively deny the voters the opportunity to weigh in through a ballot question,” and that his pledge to vote against including a question to approve a $7 million override on the town election ballot “undermine[s] the principles of representative government, transparency, and voter participation.”
Stephanie Itri and Donna Ray each objected to the validity of just their own signatures, claiming that they did not understand that the petition was to recall Kelley.
Board of Registrars Member Lauren Goldberg said that each of the objectors can be represented by an attorney at the hearing, and so can lead petitioners Brait and Costello, both School Committee members.
“Nobody knows it's going to go out to recall because there seems to be some issues with it,” Kelley said in the May 11 Select Board meeting. “We have to have our meetings with the board of registrars, and depending on who is on the losing side of that, very well could end up in Court for a decision.”
If the Board of Registrars upholds the validity of enough signatures to support a recall during the hearing, Kelley has five days to decide whether or not to resign, and then the Select Board must call a special election, Town Counsel Robert Galvin said. Kelley can run in the special election.
“I've kind of heard rumblings that no matter what the registrar has decided, there might be another lawsuit challenging the registrar's decision,” Galvin said. “Whether that happens or not, I don't know. There are scenarios under which this doesn't get resolved anytime soon.
Photocopies of the petition sheets and objections are available on the town website.
Replacing Trish Simpson
Town Clerk Narice Casper said that 255 voters signed the petition to schedule an election for Simpson’s seat, over the 200 required by state law.
Nomination papers are now available at the town clerk’s office and are due to the Registrars of Voters by June 5. In-person early voting will open at town hall July 6 and end July 23.
The Select Board previously considered scheduling both special elections to fill Darcy’s and Simpson’s seats on the same day to spend money, but decided to schedule the election for Simpson’s seat first because of unanswered questions about how long the review of the recall objection and any subsequent litigation might take.
“Three Select Board members are what the town expects and… delaying it any further actually puts us at risk,” Smith said. “If either one of us were to become sick tomorrow and unable to make a meeting, the Select Board would be incapacitated and unable to move for lacking a quorum.”
State law requires that a special election be scheduled no sooner than 65 days after the submission of the petition, making the earliest possible day July 15, Casper said.
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