Published May 9, 2019

There was an election in town on Tuesday, but it went unnoticed by the majority of townspeople. For the second year in a row, fewer than five percent of the town’s nearly 11,000 registered voters participated in it.

This occurred within hours of a special 90-minute tribute held to honor the commitment to public office by two retiring Select Board members, Bob Mauceri and Michael Prisco. Over a span of 47 years, Mauceri held virtually every office in town, serving on the Select Board, School Committee, Hillview Commission and Finance Committee. Similarly, Prisco spent the past 15 years serving the town first as a member of the Recreation Committee and the past nine years on the Select Board.

This year, 502 residents took the time to visit the polls out of a pool of 10,962 registered voters, or 4.57%

Last year, 473 residents made the effort out of 11,041 eligible voters, or 4.28%.

The 2019 election included a race for the School Committee, with three declared candidates vying for two seats – one formerly held by Mel Webster for 15 years – and two out of the three candidates were novices in running for public office. Incumbent Janene Imbriano retained her seat. Joining her on the board will be Chris Pappavaselio as he edged opponent Tracy DeGregorio.

Such positions are important to a community regardless of whether you currently have school-aged children. For starters, decisions made by the School Committee and School District administrators to create a budget suitable for presentation to Town Meeting voters represent just over 66% of the available funds the town has to spend in a given year. By choosing not to vote, you are disenfranchising yourself from this process.

Candidates for the remaining five seats did not have opponents, making it a shoe-in for incumbent Town Moderator (John Murphy), incumbent Housing Authority member (Jim DeCola) and incumbent Community Planning Commission (CPC) chairman Warren Pearce. Pearce will be joined by David Rudloff, who ran unopposed for the seat formerly held by Jonathan Cody; and two new Select Board members, Rich Wallner and Liane Gonzalez, ran unopposed for the seats previously held by Mauceri and Prisco. Just three years ago both had run unsuccessfully against incumbents Mauceri and Prisco.

We still believe that those who have committed themselves to countless hours tending to the town’s business at the expense of time spent with their own families or devoted to their own careers and hobbies deserve to have the support of their fellow citizens at the polls. Spending 10 minutes casting your ballot is an act of public service in and of itself. Our democracy cannot function without your participation.

— By Maureen Doherty, editor