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Date: 5/11/2021
HATFIELD – Ahead of Hatfield’s annual town election on May 18, Town Clerk Lydia Szych said there is just one contested race for the Housing Authority and only one candidate for two vacancies on the School Committee.
Szych said it was unusual to have so few contested races for the town election.
“This is a little unusual, I have been here for eight years and this is the least contested race I have seen,” she said.
At the time of writing, Szych said just one person outside of the current candidate, Jennifer Maloney, had expressed interest in a write in campaign for the School Committee position.
“Someone called that may be interested in a write-in campaign, but they have not actually walked in the door, they only called to inquire. So that may change,” she said.
In a typical year, Szych said the town does see some write-in votes but expects the majority to be for the School Committee vacancy this year.
“It is a small town, so you will get the usual people that are writing in names, but it is a one or two votes kind of thing. The only place we are probably going to see a lot of write ins is probably the School Committee, but I do not expect to see anything more than a couple of names here or there,” she said.
If the town fails to elect a second member, Szych said the Board of Selectmen and School Committee will appoint someone until the next election.
“If there is a failure to elect, there is a process where I must notify the selectmen and the School Committee, and then they get together and try to find someone to be a joint appointment until the next election. So, there is a legal process it just does not happen that often,” she said.
Szych added that any candidates interested in a write in campaign should let her office know in order to make counting ballots more efficient on election day.
“When people come forward and tell you they will be a write in candidate it makes it much easier for us so we can put that name on the tally sheet and be ready for when we are tallying all the ballots at the end of election night. If we have no idea who is going to be written then you are handwriting names,” she said.
While the town offered mail in ballots for the election, Szych said few residents applied for ballots.
“We were able to do early mail in ballots for the local election as well, so we advertised that and had applications out. We have gotten very few back and very few applied,” she said.
With a quieter election this year, Szych said here election warden recommended that all of the election workers bring a book.
“It is going to be pretty quiet. My election warden has been doing this for 50 years and she’s seen elections like this before, so she said bring a book because it is going to be pretty boring on that Tuesday,” she said.