5.27.26 Board of Elections

All right, good evening, everyone. It is Wednesday, May 27, 2026. I'm going to call the meeting of the Board of Election Commissioners to order. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or

transmissions are being made, whether perceived or unperceived, by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. Commissioners good evening it's good to see you good to see you I'm gonna start with a roll call attendance Commissioner Campos President Commissioner McGinney Commissioner Santos and Chamberlain's is present

okay I provide everybody a wonderful little bundle packet of information you have an outline of today's agenda as well as some meeting notes So the first thing on our agenda today is citizens input. As no one is with us tonight, we have no citizens input. Did everybody receive my email with a copy of the meeting minutes? If not, I did provide a hard copy. So we do have to approve those. So

can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting of the election commission that was held on August 21st, 2025? Motion to approve. Motion to approve made by Commissioner Campos. Can I get a second? Second. Second made by Commissioner Gibney. Okay, I'm going to do a roll call. Commissioner Campos? To approve, yes. Commissioner Gibney? Commissioner Santos? Yes. Can I vote yes?

Okay. So we have a little bit of a packed agenda this evening.

So to take a look at our outline, I just wanted to start with reviewing the 2026 Municipal Census. So it just about finished up with the response into my office so far, and as going back looking at 2025 and 2024 it's been about a 50% return rate unfortunately. We're going through the non-deliverables right now making notations in the voters records for anyone who has not complied with the annual

census for this year and based upon the preliminary numbers there are going to be 22,000 inactive voters heading into 2026. Amazingly on that point commissioners last year we had just over 25,500 inactive voters so believe it or not it's a little bit better this year. I was actually surprised by those numbers. I was anticipating that it would probably be about the same, if not a little bit

worse, but we're gonna have about 22,000 cards sent out to those voters who did not comply with the annual municipal census. I've already spoken to our vendor, and she's gonna be working on sending out those cards with the target deadline for the middle of June. So the inactive list will be prepared for the first Monday in June, which happens to be June 1st this year, so we're off and running. So for

anyone out there who is listening, if you still have your municipal census form, it's not too late to return. If you have conversations with anyone within the general public, Just remind them to please return their census form before the voter registration deadline. It is the only document that will attest to their residency in Fall River and keep

their voter registration active. So that's critically important. Plus, it will cut down on the number of cards that will have to be sent out to voters to reactivate their voter registration status. The printing costs, I just want to give you a broad breakdown.

The printing costs for the 2026 municipal census was $14,450 and the most expensive thing for doing a direct mailing was just over $26,000 in total this year. So as we know from previous elections for any voter who does not return the municipal census form or comply with the confirmation of residency card, as both Commissioner Santos and Gibney know from having worked at the polls in previous elections,

inactive voters will have to complete an affirmation of residency with the precinct warden or clerk before they're allowed to cast a ballot at the polls on election day. So we want to cut down on that traffic at the polls, especially this year, it's going to be a relatively busy election. We're going to get into that, but it's already looking like it's going to be a two-page double-sided ballot. So the less traffic

at the warden's table to have to complete affirmations, the better. So please, return your municipal census form or if you're on the inactive voter list, please return your confirmation card before the voter registration deadline, just as a heads up is always 10 days before the election, the respective election this year. Also, the other important thing, because I

get the records request all the time, the only document that attests your residency in the city of Fall River is the annual municipal census, and I can only certify your residency in Fall River if you return your long-form municipal census and make it part of the official record. So that's also another critically important point of why you do want to return your census form on an annual basis. So it always devastates

me when someone, especially a veteran, for example, is trying to apply for the veteran's bonus through the state treasurer's office, for example. when they're looking to verify their residency for this year or previous year and they themselves or their family members did not return their census form for them and I can't attest to their residency, it always

kind of devastates me when I can't sign that form for them. A lot of the time the Treasurer's Office will try to work around that as best they can but the easiest way to attest to your residency for a number of reasons is just to return your census form. The forms always go out at the end of February or by the end of January, beginning of February at the latest and it's

so easy to return I have the drop boxes all over the city. The response to that is actually relatively good. I want to say between Stop and Shop, Market Basket, and Cal more than ever, and Shaw's up in the North End, I mean, the boxes are always overflowing. So it's always great to see the response rate from those who always comply with the census. But it's always an ongoing conversation. I know

that I had mentioned last year during our commission meeting during the middle of the summer that I had a conversation with a couple of my colleagues around Massachusetts from Lowell to Chawton. The secretary's office is trying to find a way to improve this to try to get the legislature to appropriate money to the cities and towns, to the local election officials, to help us to reach out to the general public to

make the compliance with the census a little bit better than what it has been.

Because we're not the only ones who are having this problem when it comes to a 50% return rate. And decades ago, I think Commissioner Gibney would definitely remember this, the police officers were conducting the census door to door on behalf of the commission chairman at the time. So the response rate. You know, I I don't think so,

unfortunately, because I think at the time, up until the mid-1970s, it was converted to direct mailing by Chairman O'Neill. At that time, I believe it was because you always had a parent at home or a family member at home that was very easy to have a relationship with a community police officer and be able to provide the information to the Elections Department or to the Register at the time. Now I just

think with having two people not at home all the time in a much more transient population, it's much more difficult I think to be able to do that. That's why it was converted to direct mailing in the mid-1970s. But our census records up until at least the late 1980s, early 1990s are almost 95 to 100% accurate.

But over the past couple of decades, every gateway city in Massachusetts has struggled with having a compliance rate. And then all of us had, it was so surprising when I had this conversation with one of my colleagues in the towns that she said, my god, you have 25,000 people. That's more than the population of the town of Somerset on your inactive voter list. So I mean, it is actually kind of surprising

when you kind of hear those numbers because it sounds kind of staggering. But it's always an ongoing conversation. I always encourage everyone, including everyone on the commission, to please have those conversations with the general public. Remind everybody, if you have that form, send it in. I will take it in for you. You can fax it to my

office. Probably it's easier to scan. And amazingly, I do have my email address on the back of the form and I cannot tell you the response rate with people either scanning and returning it via email or people taking the effort of just taking a picture with their cell phone and emailing it directly to me. Whatever it takes to get someone to comply with the annual municipal census, I will take it. I

print out that form. It's on file. You were all set. I send them a happy smiley face and they're just happy to get the response back. But I'm like, you took the effort to do that. That's what matters. So if you don't want to send it through the post office, you can email it back. can take a picture and scan it back. They do everything. They do everything. They do

everything. The same thing applies to vote by mail applications. You can scan it in.

You can take a picture and send it back in. So I figured, why not include the email option? And again, to see a few hundred people do that, it makes a small difference. So year after year, it's a great thing to be able to see that. If they just place the form, can they get a new one?

Oh, absolutely. People call the office all the time to request a new form. I do have the census And they also fill it out? Absolutely. The form is right at the department window. I can mail it right to them. Or I do have the form readily available on the department website as well. So it's readily for anybody who might need a replacement form. Please contact the office anytime and we'll get one

out to you because I definitely want to make the census records as accurate as possible every single year. That's so critically important because that is Big project, number one, starting every calendar year for the Elections Department. So any questions about the 20, the 2026 census and what's gonna transpire next as we head into the election calendar?

Okay, exciting stuff. Okay, so we have two elections this year. We have the state primary, which has been scheduled by the legislature well in advance, thank God. It is a week before Labor Day this year. It's going to be held on Tuesday, September 1st, followed by the biennial state election on Tuesday, November 3rd. I also gave you a breakdown of the voter registration totals. We were back up to a higher number

than we had right up to 2024 levels with 63,284 registered voters. I included the breakdown by political affiliations.

44,160 voters who are currently unenrolled. We have 14,605 registered Democrats and 4,519 registered Republicans. So the state primary this year, just to remind you and the general public, registered voters who are registered with the Democratic and Republican parties are only legally allowed to vote in their party's respective primary. I'm sure you definitely remember this from

working the polls on Election Day. Unenrolled voters are those enrolled with political designations, the former libertarians and Green Rainbow Party designations are considered unenrolled and are allowed to choose the primary ballot of their preference on Election Day or if they do want to apply for one by mail. But that's the one caveat heading into the state primary

that does cause some confusion for the general public. So I want to make that crystal clear as possible. And in your travels, having conversations with voters, just remind them, please, don't forget the state primary. You do not have to rush to the Elections Department if you're unenrolled to enroll with the political party. If you are unenrolled, you

definitely have the option of voting in the state primary and you have the primary, you have the choice of choosing the primary ballot of your preference. And for this year, we have the Democratic primary ballot and the Republican primary ballot. After the 2024 state primary, the Libertarian Party has lost their ballot status and has been reverted back

to political designation. And those voters, like the former Green Rainbow Party ballot, lost their primary status after 2022, is now considered a political designation.

Okay, any questions about the designation of the primary process? Okay, so all polling precincts, all 27 polling precincts will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Election Day. And of course, this year we do have in-person early voting as well as early voting by mail. We have the two great options for the general public.

So in regard to in-person early voting, my prediction is going to be looking back at the last time that we had the midterm state election in 2022. We had about 1,200 people that voted early in person just because of all of the attention heading into a midterm state election. In 2024, in November, for example, it was about 3,300. I think Commissioner Gibney was here at the time. I know Mr. Gibney was

here working the polls at the time. But I mean, all bets are off when it includes a presidential election. So I'm really going to base the turnout number off of the midterm state election in 2022. We had just under about 1,200 people voted early in person, and then we had close to 10,000 people vote early by mail.

So the by mail option when it comes to this bird, I have to tell you, one wing is kind of big, one wing is kind of small. We've had this follow-up conversation. My clerk association, the Mass Clerks Association, has had this conversation with our delegation, with members of the legislature, because we were very curious about how things were going when it came to early voting, because it started as a pilot program

back in November 2016 only for the in-person option and then when early voting by mail was introduced I mean that took off very quickly and voters love the option of voting early by mail but this year we're going to have both options available to the general public we're going to have one week of in-person early voting prior to the state primary and 14 consecutive days of in-person early voting for the state

election the week before November 3rd so I definitely want to encourage the general public there was plenty of time to register as a voter and there's plenty of time to cast a ballot one way or the other. You have a myriad of options to be able to cast a ballot this year in person on Election Day, before Election Day, in person here at Government Center will be discussing, we're going to be

voting on designating the atrium as the permanent polling location and personally voting shortly. And of course, applying for a mail-in ballot or an absentee ballot, which the deadline to do so is always a week before the election. So there's plenty of time to get engaged with the electoral process and file your application or vote in

person. So, yeah, but you want to go through the application deadlines real quick unless anybody had any questions about in person or by mail, okay? So the absentee vote by mail application deadlines is always a week before the election, which always lands on a Tuesday. So if you're interested in applying for an early voting or absentee by

mail ballot, for the state primary, the deadline is on Tuesday, August 25th, and for the state election, it's going to be on Tuesday, October 27th. So the deadline is always the fifth business day, which is always seven days before the election. And again, you can apply directly online through Secretary Galvin's online portal. And I love the voters

who take the initiative last minute, print out the application, take a picture with their phone, and email it directly to me. As long as I have it in my inbox by 5 o'clock, it will be accepted, time stamped, and we'll get that ballot out to you as soon as possible. However, the one thing I really want to emphasize, if you are thinking about applying for a mail-in ballot, Do it as soon

as possible. File your application with the Elections Department as soon as possible. I know sometimes we are kind of uncertain about future plans, what things are going to look like, but if you're questioning about applying for a mail-in ballot, it's better to get the application on file with my office as soon as possible rather than waiting for

the last possible minute. And because of the turnaround process with processing application and getting your ballot ready to be delivered to the post office, the post office does recommend at least applying within two two weeks because of that turnaround because we do have to get the ballots out the door, they have to get delivered, and we don't

want anything to be returned non-deliverable to the election department because there was not enough time to get it out in the mail or the post office getting out to voters in the mail. So that's critically important. Okay, so here comes the important conversation when it comes to in-person early voting. The schedule has been set by the legislature.

It's gonna be from Saturday, August 22nd through August 28th. for the state primary. The weekend hours I've set from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and the weekday hours always coincide with the hours of Government Center from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. And then fast forwarding into November's state primary election, it's scheduled for Saturday, October 17th

through Friday, October 30th. Again, it's 14 consecutive days. The weekend hours are going to be from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and the weekday hours again will coincide with the hours of Government Center from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. So we have a heavy schedule of voting options for the general public. So please, for anyone out there, please take advantage of that. And there will be reserved parking all the way along

the entire stretch of Sullivan Drive for in-person early voters. And the same thing applies to the polling precincts that are assigned here on Election Day. The voter registration deadline, as I mentioned before, just want to get into a little more detail on that, is always 10 days before election day by 5 p.m. I will have special registration hours in my office from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. for

both deadlines. And again, the deadline to register to vote for the state primary is going to be on Saturday, August 22nd, and for the state election it's going to be on Saturday, October 24th. And coincidentally, that coincides with the first day of in-person early vote So on that day, if you make it to my office, you can register to vote and vote in person and early in person as well down

here at the atrium. So it's also a great day. Two birds, one stone. If you want to register to vote as a first time registrant or reactivate your status and cast a ballot early, you're more than welcome to do that. So you have a couple of great options for voter registration and voting early in person. And again, for predictions, when it comes to the state primary, I know it was relatively quiet

back in 2022, even though again the races were relatively contested, at the time i know looking ahead to this year in november especially i believe every local race including the county elections are going to be contested so i definitely want to say the turnout predictions for the primary might be relatively small this year but for november i think it's going to be a little bit higher

than we've seen for the past number of election cycles which for me is very exciting to say that so i'm hoping that we're going to be closer to at least 20,000 voters participating in the state election, which is going to be up from the 17,000 from 2022 and 2018 because the local elections here for state representatives, state senate, and for district attorney, the county races are going to be

contested, and hopefully that drives the voter turnout. I think when voters are engaged on the local level, that always makes a little bit of a difference. So it's to be determined, but I'm always optimistic that the voter turnout was going to be higher than what preceded it. So just based upon upon what we saw in 2018 and 2022, this year, I'm hopeful that the numbers will be higher than we have seen

previously. So any questions about anything before we just continue on to the next part of the nuts and bolts conversation? Okay.

Alrighty. So just in regard to in-person early voting, we just have to vote to designate the atrium as the, voting center for in-person early voting for the 2026 state primary and the state election. So can I get a motion to do so? Motion. Motion made by Commissioner Santos. Can I get a second with my pen stuck? Can I get a second? Seconded by Commissioner Campos.

Okay. All right. So what does your roll call votes? Commissioner Campos? Approved. Okay. Commissioner Gibney? Approved. Okay. Commissioner Santos? Approved. And Chairman Lyons votes yes.

Okay, so we're all set. The atrium will be the designated location for impersonally voting for the state primary and for the biennial state election. And this schedule is already on the department website, but I will be releasing it again and again and again for the general public starting the middle of the summer. So that is my plan because since we have to do it legally, I want voters to take advantage of

it one way or the other because now there is no excuse not to be able to cast a ballot before election day and on election day.

Okay, so in your packet there, I put together, there is a copy of the resolution that was filed by the City Council at the end of November 25th, 2025, as well as a couple of the proposed changes for the City Council's approval when it comes to a few of our polling locations. And I think Commissioner Campos is familiar with this conversation from what we had to do back at the end of

the reserve parking lot, parking lot number three, walking down to Building G, which was our voting center up in the north end for precincts 8B, 8C, and 9A. I have to say the facilities were wonderful. I did offer the transportation with a golf cart, that it was a little bit of a complication for the voters to get back and forth regardless of the assisted transportation. So I definitely told them that I

would address that in the back of my mind for some time just in case that that continued to be a problem. I told them I would move those locations over to Durfee High School to the old Nagle Auditorium just in case it always had to be a fallback if something was not going to work. I know Commissioner Campos was up there I think last election in November 2024. I mean it was

running very well. I know I had this conversation when at the end of 2024 they had asked me to come down to talk about how things went and it's always very difficult to base one election year to the other. When 2024 when you had the presidential state primary with the voter turnout at 15% it's very difficult to judge that based upon what happened in November 2024 when the turnout was over 50%

when we had 33,000 voters between 33 and 34,000 voters casting ballots but early and in person so about 16,000 people went to the polls on election day and I spent a good portion of the afternoon at BCC and it was running like Union Station things were going very well and for the first time there was not one phone call coming into my office to complain about the lack of accessible public parking

nobody was complaining about Carta Medeiros or Spencer Borden Elementary School. Nobody was complaining about the fire station on Eastern Avenue, which had been a problem for a long time, which thankfully we had addressed the year prior. So I felt that it was going relatively well. I certainly understood where voters were coming from about the distance between lot

three and building G. I felt it worked out better than what happened at the beginning of 2024 when I was told that they'd reserve half of the parking lot behind the school and that kind of collapsed on itself because the chief of police at the Heber Security had told me that they couldn't find the right way to block off half of the lot for voters and half for students and things that

happened on election day where the entire lot was full of cars for faculty and students and voters had no idea where to go and that got rectified and you know Joanne Bentley who was the director of facilities up there was wonderful she's like I will give you the entire lot in the front of the campus and hopefully that will rectify things to be a little bit better and You know, I felt

that it did, but I can certainly understand where the council was coming from. And I told them, in the back of my mind, just in case, I was head of your high school as a fallback, you know, provision, if you will. And on top of that, one thing that made Councilor Reposo very happy when I had my budget meeting with them last night was, and I think this will affect you as

well, because you're a voter in precinct 7A, this has been another concern for the city council, as well as a number of voters who vote at the Methodist Church at precinct 7A. The lack of parking, but the cost for that one location, with going to BCC, Precinct 7A will be merged together with the other three precincts at the Nagle Building at Durfee High School. So we're going to be moving those four

locations. That is my recommendation to the City Council. And when I had my Zoom meeting with Mr. Buscelli and Mr. Robillard from the Disability Commission with Vice President Dion and Councillor Gadeem, they were very happy to hear that consolidation with those four precincts going to Durfee High School. And it's going to be on the older

section. The address, I think, officially is on Ray Street. but the entrance point is gonna be between Treston and Ray Street. I'm already planning to order the big giant banners to put on the fence on Ray Street and on Treston Street so voters know to enter right there. When I did my site survey with the Commission on Disability and the traffic director, Director McArthur will be reserving half of the entire parking

lot there for voters only, and I assured Councilor Pereira that I will still have a golf cart on election day, just in case. if voters do require transportation. If for some reason they park way at the top, the handicap placards will be reserved for, or spaces will be reserved for voters with handicap placards closest to the building.

So I think it's going to work out very well based upon the arrangements we have now with Mr. Pacheco and the school department at Durden High School as the one consolidated voting center up in the north end. It's going to be, I've never been inside the building before, coming from being a graduate of Somerset High School, so full confession. So walking into the Nagel section of the school, it's going to be

the main open foyer. That is going to be where we're going to stanchion off the four locations. And just in case there is almost, I think you've you voted at BCC, I'm sorry, at Spencer-Borton. It was a side room, there was an old side room at Spencer-Borton, and we have a similar set up just in case if we have to use one room at Durfee High School for like precinct 7A for

example, if it's too small of a section, but I think everything between those four precincts at Durfee High School is gonna work out very well, I think, for the public. There's ample parking, the spaces there, and the distance, I don't believe is going to be a problem, but I did assure, you know, Councilor Pereira that I will keep a golf cart just in case if anybody wants to take advantage of this.

No, not at all. That was a very easy conversation. I had the conversation with the mayor, with Mr. Pacheco from the school department, and the great thing about that, Ken is letting me go in a week before the election to set everything up to kind of put my mind at ease. So it's been a very easy working relationship with the school department in terms of anything that we need on that side,

because thankfully, it's the oldest section that is only in use, I think, one side of it for a preschool right now or a daycare. So this entire section is not really used at all by the high school itself being in the older section of the building, which was very interesting to see and I know they're working on the auditory to become like a community theater I think at some point. It'll be

nice for voters to kind of see the preview of coming attractions when they go in there and kind of walk down memory lane. And it was kind of funny going in there with Director MacArthur and Danny Robillard because I think when they went to school, it was like, oh my gosh, look at this. And you can kind of see the before and after. So that is the proposed consolidation for those four

precincts, 7A, 8B, 8C, and 9A up in the north end of the city. The biggest part of the conversation, why this is taking a little bit longer for me to present it to the City Council, is what is transpiring in the north, sorry, the south end of the city. The biggest cause of concern probably the past 20 or so years for the Commission on Disability has been the two precincts at the

fire station on Plymouth Avenue. The complaints that they have had, I think a number of City Councils have received about the ADA compliance and accessibility of going into the parking garage or going into the garage at the fire station has been a problem for a number of years. So I assured both Mr. Veseli and Mr. Robillard this problem would be rectified this year no matter what. I will definitely address that. The

question for me was how am I going to do that? How am I going to address this problem? Because we're so boxed into that section of the city where I had a conversation two years ago with Director MacArthur about what would it look like if I moved it down to the Green Elementary School and almost immediately like grenades were going on because she said it's never going to work over there between

the one-way traffic. She's had problems with neighbors, with her parking control officers. The red flags were off the charts where I'd mentioned this to Commissioner Campos two years ago during that round of consolidations that it's never going to work moving from this area to a heavily densely populated section of the city to have, even for a day,

to have voters in two precincts go down to this elementary school. It's just not going to work. So that's why, on the back of my mind, I'm like, okay, let me try that conversation with Director Curran, the Director of Health and Human Services, about hijacking her senior center, which can be a bit taboo when you kind of push an activity aside for a day. So a just-in-case provision, which I get approval

for from Director Curran and from the Diocese of Fall River, because I never realized that we, or her department rents from the diocese, the old St. Elizabeth's Hall, which I think Commissioner Santos might remember was the old hall from St. Elizabeth's Church on Tucker Street, to use that facility as the new location for precincts 2C and 5A to relocate them from the fire station. However, I really don't want to do

that because you're really kind of moving at a great distance from that kind of centralized location at the top of Niagara Street and Warren Avenue, Warren Street and Plymouth Avenue in the Niagara section of the city, all the way down Stafford Road. If I have to, if we have to, you know, vote to approve that, it's kind of like an emergency situation because we have to get out of the fire station.

But this is why the mayor had a conversation with me about what about the liberal club has always been kind of thrown at the wall, I think for quite some time. And the one problem with the liberal club, well not really a problem, the one issue with the liberal club right now was the fact that the law does prohibit the use of any location that serves alcohol within its

premises, anywhere on the grounds or premises where voting is gonna take place on election day. However, the interesting thing about that, when we looked, when I pulled my records out and I had a conversation with John Rosenberry from Secretary Galvin's office, we pulled the records from 2020 during COVID. The law that was amended to allow the

designation of a voting center, a polling precinct, in a location as long as where voting was taking place, alcohol was not being served in that particular section of the building. Fantastic. However, just like with all the laws in 2020 that pertain to the code of regulations with elections, they expired December 31st, 2020. And the Votes Act was

adopted in 2022. regular statute that had been in place for a long time when it came to the designation of polling places went back into effect. So I had attached I think a copy of the letter that I submitted to with a draft language from Secretary Galvin and I put together a letter that they had recommended that I send to our local delegation. So Representative Sylvia, Fiola and Roulette and Senator

Rodericks are going to be sponsoring that draft language, that special legislation right now up on Beacon Hill before the legislature, almost like a home world petition, but not to that extent, to authorize the Fall River City Council specifically to designate the Liberal Club as a polling location here in the city. So to kind of wrap that up in terms of the designation for the South End, the plan is,

because we've had a number of complaints with a number of locations in the South End, The Disability Commission had a big problem with, amazingly, a lot of the housing authority locations. They did not like Doolin Apartments because of the accessibility and the complaints about Doolin itself, just for voters on election day, I think when you travel there

on election day, when you do make your rounds on election day, It's so difficult to get into. And voters have been complaining for a long time about the fact that if you live there, like Mr. Baseli had said to me, it's wonderful if it's your living room. But the overall accessibility for the general public and for voters who require ADA compliance or needs with ADA compliance, it's so difficult for them to

traverse back and forth here. And for voters, just regular voters overall, their parking in the Savers parking lot, crossing the street, making that great walk, trying to get into the polling center on election day. And I have no idea how it's been able to work for this long period of time. And actually, the back of my mind, had the fire station not been an issue at this point to relocate Doolin to

the senior center, that would have been a much easier switch at this point. And in the course of my conversation with Mr. Robillard and Mr. Vaselli, I had mentioned that the Liberal Club might be a possibility for the future, if not 26, maybe 27, but their commission had actually voted to, you know, for Mr. Vaselli to, they overwhelmingly endorsed all the changes on the suggestions that I had presented to

you, that I'm gonna be presenting to the City Council, as well as overwhelmingly in favor of using the Liberal Club as the designated polling location for the South End for Precinct 1B. which is dual and apartments, precincts 1A and 1C, which is at Laterno, which ever since it was converted to a one-way recently, it's only caused more problems than the simple fact that we had not, I mean, that's one thing that

we keep hearing about now more than ever is the fact that half of the street now in Anthony was converted to one-way traffic only, which causes a lot of confusion, especially with bigger elections like 2024 and I would imagine 2026. And combined with the fact that when it comes to a march in presidential primary or a preliminary, school is in session and voters have to walk into the building. concerns

around schools have been much more significant now than it has been in previous years.

That's one of the reasons why Spencer and Tansy Borden became a top priority for consolidation. I mean, I know a couple of years ago when voting was still at Spencer Borden, we were getting calls from administration into my office saying, somebody walked into a classroom by mistake, somebody tripped a silent alarm, can we do something about this?

And I'm like, Well, I can give you stanchions. There's a police officer that we can try as best we can, but the officer has to stay in the voting room where voting is taking place with the poll workers. He cannot stand outside, and I cannot ask the police chief for another officer. So, you know, relocating out of schools has been one of the BCC is one thing, Derby is another, but the

elementary schools, especially when we don't have a separate room unto ourselves, like Cuss and Mary Fonseca, it made things very complicated on election day. But the overall parking, the traffic situation around Anthony Street, especially when the elections are bigger, it just made for the need to relocate from Letourneau and Doolin and try to find a location that

has a huge room. And when Mrs. Murphy came down from the Secretary's office to do her site survey, she was amazed. pulling up in front of the Liberal Club.

She said, it's so deceiving. You have no idea how actual the sheer size of the, it would be used in the Gold Room. That's the proposed plan. Using the Gold Room to have the five precincts there, because I'll get back to you in just a second, but for Letourneau and Doolin to be centered there and just the sheer size capacity at the Liberal Club would be fantastic. Brian, is there any concern

about the Liberal Club closing? prior to elections, I know the rumors are up there, but the restaurant part I know for sure is closing. That was the one thing, because the restaurant is closed and the club itself and their rental halls are remaining open as of right now. So I've not heard anything from the club president who was actually, again, was very happy to

have elections come there because I think for them they're very happy to have, almost like the BCC having more traffic come in there to kind of see what the club might have to offer people. I think for them they're kind of happy because more traffic coming in there, seeing what the club might have to offer, somebody might rent the hall. So for them it's almost like actually a really good thing. But

I've not heard anything in terms of that side of their business, I think closing.

They're trying to, I think, selling the kitchen or trying to find something to take over the operations of the bar restaurant side. But the club itself and their function halls, I think, are remaining as is as of right now. So if there was anything else that would have changed about that, then I definitely would have. said well this is not going to work. Because that was always my biggest concern the minute

I heard the liberal club closing, well this entire consolidation idea was just not going to work. We have to remain where we are until, somebody bill something. I keep saying, can somebody just bill something in the South End? But I think definitely with the Liberal Club as it is right now in that location. And just back to Plymouth Avenue, just we're taking a segue around the city right now. At Blessed Trinity,

we do have the two locations, 2A and 2B. So it's going to be kind of like a bait and switch, if you will. And I actually think Father Robb is really going to get a kick out of this. Because that section of Plymouth Avenue is actually precinct 2C. So Father Robb, who actually is the pastor of Blessed Trinity, he votes at the 5 station even though he lives right there so we

laugh about that all the time just because we I think 15 years ago when they finished Blessed Trinity Church, we relocated the two precincts from the Globe Fire Station on Eastern Avenue because the other section, the other section of Plymouth Avenue, the St.

Ann's section all the way down to Eastern Avenue, precincts 2A and 2B, they vote at Blessed Trinity, and then 2C and 5A, which is the Niagara section, the Stafford Road section, they vote at the fire station. So it's kind of interesting when you look at Ward 2, the way that it borders precinct 5A and precinct the way they kind of all hug each other's hands. So I think Father Rob is definitely

going to get a kick out of the way things are going to change. And it kind of stems around the need to relocate the precincts out of the fire station. I always wish that Blessed Trinity was the same size as Good Shepherd, which is enormous, as Marlene knows, because Good Shepherd has an enormous parish hall, which if anything was to happen in the south end, could definitely accommodate another two precincts. We'll

talk about St. Anthony's in a minute. But Good Shepherd has a large Parish Hall, where Blessed Trinity, we can only fit the two locations right now. So not to cause any further confusion for the public, but I will make sure it's crystal clear in the notices that do go out that precincts 2C and 5A at the fire station are moving down the street to Blessed Trinity. This is the tentative conversation right

now. And then 2A and 2B will be married with Ward 1 at the Liberal Club. And again, the sheer size capacity at the Gold Room, it's amazing when you see the entire room cleared out, how large it actually is. It's kind of like when I saw Good Shepherd's Parish Hall just kind of cleared up all the clutter, I'm like, I never realized how big it was until you actually kind of see

everything with just the floor space itself. The Liberal Club has good parking. Oh, plain parking. Actually, when Mrs. Murphy was doing her site evaluation, she was amazed by the sheer size of the walkway heading into the door. Yeah. And I think there was one thing that I told her we will definitely take care of. There was, I think, carpet in front of the door that I said, don't worry, we will definitely

take care of that. Facilities, elections will take care of that before. And I said, once the precincts are set up, I will send her pictures of everything. But she was very happy with that. She also surveyed Is it the silver? Is it gold and silver? The middle room. We have the gold room. I'm going to probably say silver, which I know is wrong. But she also surveyed the middle room just in

case if we needed an overflow for some reason. They said we're more than welcome to use that room as well for Election Day. There would not be a problem with that. So she kind of concluded her survey with looking at the parking lot.

There was more than enough parking spaces. The traffic department will go by to add, I think, seven or eight total handicap spaces right in front of the Gold Room, and they told me that the lights were just replaced in the parking lot. So the lighting situation is fine, the doorway itself is more than sufficient for voters with wheelchairs that require handicap assistance, and just the sheer size of the room

itself is more than accommodating for the general public on Election Day. And again, the Disability Commission, they were just thrilled with not just the consolidations, but with the potential idea of using liberal club in place of the elementary schools and locations like Juleen Apartments they just find for not just ADA compliance but more accessibility with voters with

handicap requirements that the liberal club would be much more of an accommodation for them.

Let alone I think a lot of voters who I think live at Bates apartments for example have found it very difficult getting to and from their location to a Doolin apartment and kind of vice versa within other sections of precinct 1B. So I think all around as a very centralized location it's very accommodating to relocation from Doolin,

Letourneau, and Blessed Trinity. And it really kind of solves much the easier, making this situation much easier between relocating from the fire station to the senior center, which to me I really didn't want to do unless it was an emergency situation. So hopefully if this legislation is approved by the legislature, we get permission, the council can vote

to designate the liberal club this year, hopefully going forward. So fingers crossed it's going to happen by July. And I spoke with Representative Faiola, she and Representative Sylvia are trying to get the Shepherder through as quickly as possible this year. But that is the tentative plan. Once it gets through the House, it's handed over to Senator Rodericks.

And on the Senate side, it's kind of a walkthrough once something passes the House.

So that's kind of my... I have a question. Of course, yes. I know that was a lot right there. I'm sorry, the map is going through my head. I'm making sure I didn't miss anything. But I'm not done. I've got to go to the Flint. Well, so it seems like looking at the liberal club, which is obviously a great solution, but it does bring into a different scenario where there is a

potential in the future that it doesn't exist in its current state, which we don't have those when you're talking generally with churches and you're talking apartment buildings or schools.

Those are much. Not twice, Marling. Yeah. A lot less of a risk there. Yes.

So I would assume that we would need to come up with some kind of secondary plan looking forward, not in the immediate future, but if there even is a hint that there's a potential issue, then it would make sense to say, okay, are we gonna go back to the fire station? Is that what the backup plan is? Or should we be looking at an alternative, let's say it's a

handful of years in the future, where something changes and we can't use that space anymore? It's an excellent question. It's definitely not going to be the fire station because I know that. Well, obviously we're trying to. Oh, no, no, I know, I know, I know. I'm just saying. It definitely wouldn't be the fire station, but I think

the fallback provision, just in case God forbid if something happened to the Liberal Club or any location, I think, in the South End, then it probably would have to be a location like the Henry Lord Middle School. Okay. Would have to be, I think, a consolidated location in the South End section of the city. Something happened kind of on the other section of like South Main Street, Then Good Shepherd could accommodate

another one or two, possibly three precincts just because of the sheer size of the parish hall. But there's always like a fallback provision in the back of my mind just in case what happened if something happened to that club or if this parish closed or we lost that senior center. What happens if the diocese did not want to renew the contract with the city or the health department? We have to move

it somewhere else. So there's always like, well, we do have that school even though we really don't want to go there unless that's going to be like an emergency situation. So if something happened to local at this point, given that number of precincts that would be potentially consolidated there, then it would be a location like the Henry

Lord Middle School. Yeah, that can accommodate that kind of traffic. That can accommodate that kind of traffic. And actually, in the back of my mind, before the liberal club, I kept thinking, well, Doolin is here, and then the Henry Lord Middle School is right there. And I always kept thinking, you know, some time ago, I really wish that it was moved there 20 years ago. But I just think there was always

an apprehension about going into schools over the past number of years just because of security concerns, the traffic patterns, and some locations in the city, as you know, especially where Doolin is located, just like almost like Spence of Ordon, it's just, it's not easily accessible to the public. So Henry Lord would be like, a fallback provision, almost

like Durfee, if you will, just in case it had to be something. But obviously, it's clear that we have a space that. We do. It's just pending on approval by the legislature at this point to amend the existing statute to give the city council the authority to designate it as a polling location. I think overall, for just the informal conversations I've had with a couple of counselors, they were like, oh my

gosh, it looks fantastic as an idea. I think the delegation itself, they're like, well, that consolidation looks fantastic. I'm sure it'll be good for the local club too, so I don't think I think for them, once you have all this traffic and start renting some space, I'm just kidding, but again, maybe somebody might see and might want to take advantage of it for the future. Well, when else are you going there

unless you have a need to go there? Right, exactly. So you might learn something else about the club while you're there or something else about some of the other buildings that we do use. And just kind of segueing from the south end to the consolidations over in the Flint section of the city. One thing that I know Mr. Paselli had raised when it came to a number of the housing authority locations,

it was just the sheer point when he looked that could tell why I know he voted before when he lived in that section of the city, almost like Beresi, that the buildings were not that accommodating when it came to ADA compliance. It was very easy, he told me, for voters who lived in the complexes to get there, to vote in person. if that was your home, almost like your living room. But

overall accessibility was not that accommodating. So to have them as part of the conversation, I found to be very eye-opening for me. And especially when you look at just the overall accessibility between Cattell and Beresi, you've been there on your travels, I just think for the public sometimes it's been very difficult. And some of the complaints, most

of the complaints in the Flint, are coming from the Flint, came from not just the fire station, but between Cattell and Beresi. And a lot of voters vote early by mail now in that section of the city, but just the overall accessibility between the two high rises has been a problem for some time. Even when the traffic department goes out the day before to reserve two spaces for handicapped voters and two

spaces just for voters in general, if you have a handicapped placard, you could park there all day, which I find voters abuse or residents abuse all the time, and there's nothing that I can do about it. There's nothing the traffic director can do about that. If you have a placard and you're visiting someone, you live there and you have a handicapped placard, you can park in that which technically was reserved for

election day use, but there's nothing that the police or the traffic director can do about that. And I found that we saw that a great deal at Bishop Bede, for example, at Gattell, Beresi, a number of the high rises. This is the biggest problem at Julean, has been the biggest problem at Julean Apartments for a number of years, where there was no parking for voters at all, and God forbid if you

parked with a handicap locker in a residence parking space, We heard about that as well. So, I mean, parking has been, as I had the conversation with Mr. Buscelli and Mr. Robillard, they understand that has been the biggest source of a problem in the city for quite some time. And they said a number of years ago, you know, the idea of taking them away would have been like, well, we can't really

see eye to eye on that. But now going forward, it's like, and Mr. Buscelli was telling me that his overall experience trying to walk into Cattell and trying to get there for him and his wife, I believe, I'm not sure about, what her concerns were, but overall accessibility for those who require handicap accommodations were a bit taxing. And I'm like, well, this is actually very useful information. And then we did

our survey of St. Anthony of the Desert Parish Hall, and we brought them all the way around the parish hall, which was cleared out, and they were just amazed by the sheer size of the parish hall itself, the sheer square footage. And I said, those two precincts can easily fit into the parish hall at St. Anthony's. which would be greatly accommodating. So we would have the two there, plus merging precincts 6A

and 6B from the high rises into St. Anthony's. And again, as I emphasized to the City Council last night, I have a driver all day. I have that mini bus on loan from the veterans officer and I offer transportation. And he was gone all day long in November 2024. He left here at seven o'clock in the morning and I saw him at 10 o'clock at night. I mean, he was just, he

was a very busy guy and he loves it like that. I love to see that. We were getting phone calls from residents in locations that weren't even affected by consolidations. I mean, I have a set schedule in place for Mitchell apartments, for Olivera apartments, for Bishop Eade, for Cardinal Medeiros. He goes there first thing 8.30 in the morning at Cardo Medeiros, for example, or go back in the afternoon. He's like, there

were residents outside the door waiting for me to pick them up to bring him to BCC, for example. He would go back in the afternoon, the same thing. And then I was getting phone calls from Milligan Apartments. from Ships Watch up in the North End. People had heard that we were offering transportation and wanted rides to and from the polls on Election Day. And then last year, both elections in 2025, we

had one phone call come in from a resident at Oliveira Apartments. And of course, they still went out there to Cardin Madeiras. They still went out there to Oliveira and to Bishop Eade. And he waited for a little while. Nobody was there at 8.30 in the morning or at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So it's just devastating to see that because, I mean, all these voters were there taking advantage of transportation

and participating on Election Day. And this is why I always say to the council and to the general public that you can never compare saying the voter turnout is going down. It's almost like a bad heart monitor, if you will. It's so hard because it's so generational. When my grandparents' generation, Kathy and I have had this conversation,

dominated the city, you can tell the difference between a preliminary and a presidential in Fall River. Now it is just up and down and up and down. So it's just so hard to evaluate from one election to the other. But I always tell people all the time, please, get out and vote. You have no excuse not to, there's ample time to register, you can change your political affiliation status up until 10

days before, you can apply for mail-in ballots, and if you want transportation to the polls, just contact the Elections Department. We can definitely arrange that for you. But when it comes to the consolidations, I think that was everything, because I'm driving around the city in my head right now, but we did, I completed on May 5th is

when I did the accessibility survey with the Commission on Disability and then Director MacArthur came as well. I had the two guys who worked for me in DCM, set up the polls on election day, and I think that's going to work out very well based upon the tentative recommendations for the City Council's approval. So just waiting right now on the legislature to act on that draft language. I know

it's before the House Clerk and House Council right now, and I spoke to Senator Roderick's legislative aide yesterday. Once it passes the House, it's almost like a formality to get through the State Senate, and then it will land on the Governor's desk, which again, it's almost like signing a Home Rule petition. Once she does that, then the

City Council is green-lighted to designate it as a polling location. So I know that was a lot that we had on the agenda tonight, but especially for what we just talked about when it comes to the polling precinct discussion. Any questions about any of the consolidations, what is going to transpire going forward. But if for some reason, again, the legislature does not act on that or I find that it's going to

be a little bit too late because I don't want to give voters, I know legally I have to provide 20 days notice, I don't want it to be that late, back up against the wall. I know back in November, I'm sorry, January of 2024, the council approved the changes. I think their first meeting of the year, which gave me like a 45 day period to send out notification to the general public.

I at least want that same timeframe. And I, at the same time, don't wanna have to move down to the senior center and I don't wanna revisit consolidations unless we build Gillette Stadium in Fall River. But I'm optimistic that again, what we're proposing right now, what I'm proposing to the City Council, the legislature will act upon this and based upon the conversations with the delegation, they're gonna act on

it very swiftly and will be enacted into law ASAP. How will the voters that are being affected be notified? Are they all active voters? Will there be signs of the... Every single one. So the old precincts, will there be signs listed there? The mock-ups are ready to go. I remember the confusion at CUS. People were coming in and they're like, I was at Oliveira, right. Oliveira, and we're like,

well, you know, you're here. Well, I wasn't notified, and it was like, I'm sure you were. Yes, so direct mailings, I like to send them out within 30 days before the election. The 20-day timeline. Is that just to the active voters? Oh, to every registered voter. If you're on the voter rolls, whether active or inactive, you are going to get a direct notice if your precinct will be changed. The signs will

be going up. The large signs are going to be going out at every location, probably at least. two weeks before election day, that way it's kind of in voters' minds well in advance. I started doing the PSAs with FRGTV, with community access, with WSAR as soon as possible. But I like everything to kind of be fresh in voters' minds within like the month before the election and seeing how the

state primary is on September 1st, I want it to be right there within that like August 1st, September 1st mindset for the general public. So hopefully again the legislature will approve this by the beginning of July. I can prep all of the notices to go out in the mail. I think Tim will be getting one for me with a smiley face. And you know again I want to keep having this conversation

with the public like I did at the beginning of January. And based upon the way everything looks right now, it's not, I don't expect any surprises to happen like we had at BCC where everything was fantastic ready to go, the rose petals were on the ground, and then all of a sudden it's like, I'm pulling into the back parking lot and it's full with a thousand vehicles. And then voters had no

idea where to park and it's like, well, something happened by mistake that day and we had to rectify that problem by moving it to the front, which You know, logistically, I can understand the distance problem, but the facilities and BCC again rolled out the red carpet and Joanne told me that we're welcome back any time if anything ever happens, BCC is always an option for any election activity, not just for election

day, just in case. So where will the signs be for BCC? before you get in to the campus? Right, before you get in. And actually, I'm going to be asking the event director to add additional large signs to be there. And I do want to get, I'm going to steal one of the signs from Director Furland, one of his flashing signs, to be outside on the campus, probably, hopefully, like a couple

of days before, if not the week before, if I can steal it for that long. Just reminding voters to vote at Derby High School, that the precincts have been relocated. And then for at least the day before the election, I'm going to ask for one to be set up probably at the intersection of, which I've always wanted to do this, at the intersection of President and Ellsbury Street to draw attention on

election day. It's election day, and if you go to those precincts, it's gonna be at the high school. Now, could we do signage for those going to BCC?

Because you can get up to Nagel between Driscoll and Durfee.

Oh, yes. Right? So obviously the normal ways would be off of what, Ray Street and... And Chestnut. And Chestnut. But you can also go up. So for those people who maybe drove to BCC and they're coming back, maybe there can be a sign...

Yes, so the large banner signs that say vote here, 7A, 8B, 8C, 9A, they're gonna be on the fences on Chesson Ray, but the arrow signage to kind of guide voters in case they go to BCC by mistake, or if you live on Ellsbury, coming down from that section you're driving in, just follow the arrows to go to the old Nagel section of the building. So that's my plan to go out

there with my guys from DCM to kind of make sure that it's mapped out as easy as possible. While the main entrance is going to be on Ray Street, if voters do come in through the Ellsbury Street section, They're going to be guided to go right there and not confused by trying to go in through the newer section of the hospital. Now, I know this is going to, you know, but we

know how people tend to be, and sometimes they're not always aware of signage and things. Do you think it would make sense to put a body maybe at the corner on campus? You're right by checklist, Tim. I didn't even get there. But it just, and possibly, like, at that turn to go into the driveway of Durfee near Driscoll. Because there's gonna be people who have questions. And rather than them just

driving around and then saying, you know what, Oh, no, no, I definitely, it's almost like Council Kadima said, you know, when it comes to like the distance between the parking lot and building, it gives voters like that one more excuse not to vote in a particular election. Oh, this is too far, I can't make it. And when it comes to municipal, it's like, please, it's almost an extra dagger in the heart

when it comes to somebody not voting in a lower to vote or turnout election anyway. But definitely having someone assigned to be on that section by Elsbury, kind of by the arrows, if you will, that's a very easy thing to do. I know the council had asked last go around with consolidations, it was impossible. to find somebody to kind of stay outside the buildings if you will to kind of redirect traffic

the signage worked out well for people to be relocated where to go you know precinct 4a is now going to be at Matthew Cuss here is the address you know yeah I'm sure it'll be pretty effective but I think for Derfee High School this is a lot it's a much easier thing for them to do given the fact that you have the old and the new and actually councilor Kamara asked me

this the other last night and that's gonna be the old section of the building but I want to have this conversation after budget, because I wasn't kind of ready to get into it last night, but when I map it out for the council to know that there will be, I'm going to have someone assigned to be there, if not probably on the golf carts, but probably the two golf carts, but if

somebody happens to be coming along that way, at least it'll draw the attention. Here are the arrows, follow them, and if not, this is how we get it, and somebody can relay that information to get from the newer section of the high school to the old Nagel section of the building, just in case, so that way nobody tries to go into a locked building and realize, well, I vote here at the

high school now, and now the building is locked in. And people haven't gone to Nagel in a long time. I went there for high school, and You know, it's been closed for a long time, so people aren't really familiar with going into that parking lot anymore. A lot of people don't know the new driveway because, you know, unless you have a student, you know, or have a reason to go to Durfee,

you're not going up that route. Oh, it's education for me, too. Yeah, but it's a nice little road that connects up by Spencer Borden up to the Nagel, so you really... I was amazed by that, actually, because we went through an area that I never knew existed. I know Chestnut and Ray because I walk it all the time. But to see kind of like the windy road, if you will, between Spencer,

it's actually beautiful between when you see the before and after, what they were able to build between the old and new high school. I'm like, well, this actually will work out well because we're connecting without people having to go all the way around.

But that's when I realized we're going to have to put some traffic cones or traffic can help me when it comes to kind of guiding voters from Ellsbury over to, I keep saying PCC. over to the natal section of the building, which can be an easy thing to accomplish. I'll make sure that I'll sign.

Yeah, I'm sure a little thought to go into that on how you want to route the traffic, but that's three separate ways for people to get in for a fair amount of precincts that are gonna be condensed into one spot. So, I mean, it makes sense if you can just find a way to keep people from giving up on the pursuit of getting to the parking lot. No, no, no, especially when

they're there, committed to do it on election day. It's basically past the point of no return. It's past early voting, it's past early voting by mail, this is you voting on election day, and especially as we're heading into a bigger election, a big election cycle with November 26th, and with the two-page double-sided ballot, I just want to

emphasize that one more time, it's going to be a very interesting election cycle. I know the interest is going to be there, and I think we've been talking about the midterm elections for at least a year and a half already, so I'm just...

Excited by that fact, plus the fact that with local elections being contested, I think it helps to drive the conversation forward by voters really being engaged on the local level. They will get out to the polls and vote. So I'm optimistic that it might be upwards of almost 20,000 voters. Really not going to win a couple of times here to getting out to the polls to vote. Whatever I can do, whatever

we can do to make the process easier for the general public. that's what we're gonna work on together. And that's why I tell people it's always an ongoing conversation.

We always have to try to do it as best we can. But, excellent point.

That's why I always have that, almost like the Henry Lord conversation, just like, what if, just in case, well, it's gonna have to go to Henry Lord. Just like, what if something happened with BCC? Well, we're gonna have to use Durkee High School, because the idea we're burning back almost 100%, like 360, if you will, like going back to elementary schools, it's just, that would be more of a concern than it

would be if we have to. I mean, that's like a God forbid, like end of the world if we had to. But thank God we have other fallbacks in between. And the partners that we have between Good Shepherd and Monsignor Root or Bishop Root at St. Anthony's, he's been a wonderful partner. He has welcomed us warmly to be there. We have some great partners now. And thanks to the president of the

Liberal Club and her association, I mean, we've been fantastic. So the conversations have been very easy. Even with the senior center between Director Curran and the diocese, I think because the pastor of Holy Trinity actually still oversees the property. And they were like, oh, not a problem. You're welcome. So it's been an easier process than. So

you don't anticipate any problem with the city council if it gets to the city council? I do not from the informal conversations. I expect it to be a conversation I'll definitely have with them in public because I know that it's going to be kind of like Round two, because I don't even count the President Ponte had mentioned

something two years ago about potentially further consolidations. Looking at the list that we have, great consolidations, a great step forward, because the other ones that we had go back almost 20 years when we were forced to take action, when my predecessors were forced to do something. Like when Millican Apartments, when the new owners no longer wanted the

city to utilize it as a polling precinct, well, I believe Chairman Cummings had to move it here to government center. And the same thing happened up in the Highland Avenue, when I think, did you go to the Highland Avenue? at one time, Kathy, remember that? The Highlander was a polling precinct for the north end of the city, for the far north end, and then the new owners did not want the Elections

Department to utilize it any longer, so we had to move it to Calvary Temple.

So it's been kind of forced to make the changes, but at this time, basically, it was in response over the past couple of years, just by the simple fact that voters have been complaining about accessibility, whether it's been the lack of parking or the concerns actually coming from the Disability Commission about the safety concerns, the ADA compliance

concerns, parents concerns about the schools being open. So now I think going forward it's a real good set of a list going forward, a good set of consolidations going forward. I think it's really going to work out well and I'm kind of excited to see what they'll look like overall once everything is stanchioned and set and ready to go and the signs are basically mocked up and ready to go

to the vendor to be printed. I think it'll work out very well. And again, definitely when it comes to the traffic patterns, because Durfee is like the one unique location where again, Liberal is just basically, you're right in your mouth, you have an accessible location. That's why the senior center was basically an emergency one, because that was

gonna be a little more complicated. St. Elizabeth's was just, it's location, it was somebody's backyard. But yeah, that's the proposed tentative list right now, commissioners, for what I'll be presenting to the city council. As long as the legislature acts upon that special legislation and they all know that time is of the essence when it comes to the City Council having to approve this list and they

all know the dates of you know the election believe me for September 1st and November 3rd but especially for this because I won't be taking any action if it's too close to the state primary and there will be no changes between September and November. It would have to be pushed off until next year, so this will be revisited. I think things would have to stay in place. I mean, the North End

is one thing, but the South End precincts would have to be revisited in a future conversation if it's too late into the process, but if it's by mid-July, then we can work with that. The notifications can be prepped, be ready to be mailed, and we can definitely get everything ready to go for the state primary, but that's...

timeline why for me it's like it's never been this late before but we had to wait with the City Council resolution I promised Mr. Buscelli and Mr. Robillard that I would definitely do the site survey with them and the middle of the winter was not going to work I mean we were still bearing out of 41 inches last week so we waited until the middle of the first week in May and

then the Liberal Club required a site survey additional site survey from the Secretary's office so It's been a slow process, but a very productive, but slow process, but it's worked out really well. Any questions about anything? I know I throw a lot out to you. There's a lot of it for the public to kind of digest. I don't want anybody to be confused about anything, but no action has

been officially been taken just for the public, just to know. But you will know once the changes have been effected when the City Council votes to approve them, if they do. Does that include the NAGEL? Do we have to vote on that at all? For this Toronto Consolidations, we do not. Ultimately that's for the City Council.

They are the designated authority when it comes to polling locations. So the list would have to go, what's before you is going to go directly to them. Okay. You do have the draft language. I wanted everybody to have a complete copy of that.

What's going forward to them. And so any questions about anything that was from census to consolidations to...

a lot of work for you, but it's on a roll away. Oh yes, I mean I keep it flowing, that's definitely for sure. It's always one big project to the next and I knew that after, thankfully when the council, they adopted this resolution was at the end of last year so I knew what was going to be forthcoming and for me basically when I had the conversation with Mr. Buscelli it was

like, you know, how do you want this to look like? How do you want to move this going forward? And I think probably the best thing was doing the site survey with the Disability Commission worked out very well because I learned a lot of things from both of them, especially from Chairman Buscelli about, you know, how things were for them, especially when it came to the housing authority locations that they had

concerns about. The fire station I knew had been a problem for some time and I assure them that would be rectified. But just to know that, you know, for them they wanted more consolidated, easily accessible locations for the general public, which is great news to hear. Well I like to think consolidating, it just makes it easier logistically too. I mean it's a better experience for them. Oh, and mine

without question. management of having a perfect election, it's a lot harder when you have all these sites to deal with and there's problems and you can't get there. The more we consolidate, the easier it will be to have a better election overall. So you hit the nail on the head. And it's exciting. You hit the nail on the head. I mean, it's very exciting all around. Logistically, definitely

without question, having the consolidations makes it so much easier for me to get to if there is an issue. I think for voters just to get to overall, that's probably the best package deal right there. But everything coming together like this is so much easier than having everything so sporadically spread out all across the city. I'm looking at some of the locations that for years were, I can certainly

understand the concept of having the working relationship between the Elections Department and the Housing Authority. They were great partners for many, many years. And we'll still have one location down, Holmes Apartments down by the waterfront by the bridge on Fulton Street. But then again, it's like for those who might live there, one accommodation, but the overall

accessibility for voters, and on average we have about 2,500 registered voters per precinct now, you have to put that into one larger perspective. It's like I had a conversation with someone about this, that I understand the fact that you might live next door to Spencer Borden as an example, But also, in conversation with the city council, I'm like, you do have to drive from your house all the way down, closer to

Eastern Avenue to get there. So we have to put into perspective the fact that voters, regardless of where you live to your polling, within your polling precinct, you do have to get to your location one way or the other. Whether you might live across the street, next door, within a building, a mile away, it's every registered voter's

polling location within that precinct. And that's how we have to make the evaluations on that. I'm speaking when Kathy and I visited all the precincts last election and speaking to the poll workers who worked at the actual high rises, the percentage they said of people that voted that lived in that high rise was so much lower than the traffic coming in. So the traffic people will be happier,

I think, because there were times when Kathy and I had difficulty looking for a pocket space, even though we do have those selected areas. but they were full and one of them was like the Laterno, we went around that Pokemon like five times and I said to her, I think if I was a voter, you know, give up. It's like I'll come back later. But in the high rises, the ladies that

we spoke to were like, you know, are you getting big in there like, mostly walk-ins who don't live in the high rise. Yeah, that was surprising. I don't think they'll be so effective. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the dynamics of the populations at certain housing through locations has definitely changed over the past couple of decades. It's changed significantly from one location

to the other. I mean, there have been calls coming into the office where voters, again, if someone pulled in, this was a complaint that came in a couple of years ago, voters mistakenly pulling into Cardo Medeiros. to drop off an elderly parent, for example, to walk into the location, and then voters, I'm sorry, residents who live there

would get confrontational with that person. And all they wanted to do was basically let their parent out to vote. Or mistakenly, they pulled into the lot not realizing they could not park there and confrontations would happen. Duel in apartments. My precinct warden, who is now one of my clerks, the police officer said, just park behind my car,

nobody's gonna bother you. My poll workers had to park across the street in the private lot. And voters, again, the same kind of complaints that you're just kind of talking about were the complaints coming in for a long time about these locations because the city in many locations is so densely populated where it's few and far between

where parking was available blessed trinity was one and father rob has been a godsend when it comes to a partnership and then you know a cuss middle school where you had worked for a number of years as a precinct warden again when school is not heavily in session on that side of the parking lot it's great for voters um but like all of our apartments i mean It was almost as bad

as like Bishop Ede over on Cricochemps Street. There was nowhere for voters to park.

And again, if you parked in a lot in somebody's space by mistake, you know, words were being thrown out there. The police officer would tell me stories about having to go outside. And it was just getting frustrating after all. That's when I knew some of these consolidations that should have been made quite some time ago had to take place. And it's not just a matter of, you know, the building right there

and people who live there. But I'm like, it's... There are 2300 registered voters in that precinct. How are we going to accommodate everybody who wants to get to a polling location on election day? Right down the street in Cuss Middle School is that separate room unto itself easily accessible to the general public with a parking lot. That

should be the voting center for that section of the city. And then Good Shepherd.

enough said between the size of the parking lot and the sheer size of that hall and actually I never realized how big it was and it's my home parish and then we clear the entire hall out and I said oh my god look at all this space that we're wasting. Oh, three more precincts. I couldn't believe, I mean just in case like if something happened there's always a fallback provision for if

something happened with CUS for example which Again, they're wonderful over there. They're building custodians, have everything set up and ready to go for us. They are fantastic, as Marlene knows. But just in case, I mean, we do have great partners throughout the city.

So I'm happy with the consolidations. And just in case, there's always a fallback. emergency if we have to, but in certain sections of the city. So we'll see what's going to go forward. And now you can all park and visit everybody. And do not forget to bring my poll worker snacks on election day. We had this conversation last time in a jestful way, of course. But when you make your rounds, please

do so. September 1 is the state primary. And then November 3, again, I'm just very optimistic that the turnout is going to be bigger than what we saw the past couple of midterm elections, state elections. It should be very exciting all around. And then I am just kind of curious about, just to make the public aware, with that two-page double-sided ballot, if you're voting early by mail, you will have to return

the entire thing, even if you decide not to vote one portion of it, because the tabulators are going to be programmed to read two-page ballots and if you think back to 2022 and everybody here was involved with that process we had the dual election so the city is already accommodated to the idea of having two ballots being handed to them but it's not you know two separate elections it's one because we

have the state election in 22 and then we have the special municipal election for the MBTA zoning that was a very you know that was quite a daunting election but thankfully we had that so it kind of gets the public mind wrapped around the fact that they were handed you know two separate placards two separate ballots cards and it's going to be like that this time because we're looking at as of

right now the secretary has certified 12 referendum questions so I think 11 have been our official one I think is being challenged if I'm not mistaken but the voter guide is probably going to look like this in your mailbox just as a heads up we've had my my County Clerk Association meeting and director Tassaneri was down and she's like I It's going to be interesting trying to find enough glue

from a vendor that can actually glue all the bindings together. Because the voter guides, the red voter guides, are great tools for the public to have. I was just going to say that. I found mine very, you know, especially like 60 pages. The voter guide, it's like a phone book is coming out. So because the voter guides are fantastic. You know, every race on the ballot, you have all 12 or 11

or 12 questions on. They have a full summation, a pro and con statement, the entire text of the statute. So voters have a lot of homework to do. And we'll have this conversation again. before November's election, definitely. But the voter guide, that's going to be very interesting going forward. But just so you know, that's everything in a nutshell for the 26, the 2026 election cycle, and definitely for

the proposed designation of our polling locations for 2026. So any questions about anything at all, commissioners? No, you haven't at all. Okay, alrighty. Thank you for enduring that long monologue. I had a lot I wanted to make sure that I presented to you and to the public. When will we need to meet again to vote on the actions from City Council? We do not. That's their decision.

Okay, so we don't have to do anything. I will definitely schedule another meeting probably maybe between September and November. I definitely want to have the conversation about November's election.

Okay. Because again, as I just mentioned, kind of roughly with the a two-page double-sided ballot, a voter guide that is going to be the size of a phone book.

I definitely want to make the public aware of what is forthcoming. Because there's going to be a lot more education coming out about November's election, all the questions the voters are going to be making decisions on. It's going to be a pretty taxing election, especially with the early voters by mail. You may not want to vote for the second page if you don't want to. It's your choice. But you're going to

have to return it. It's almost going to be tantamount to you ripping a ballot in half. And both precinct wardens over here, and Kathy, who works for me during advanced knows that, well, we can hand count the half of it, but then we can't run that through a tabulator. The machine's going to be programmed to accept two separate pages for this election. And if somebody doesn't return page two, is their vote

In that case, as you know, the ballots would have to be hand counted. And that second page there would be blanks all the way through. It's usually at the precinct, though. Where's the other one? And they go, oh, I didn't fill it out.

It's like, go get it. Yeah, so it's almost like that with the dual elections.

I know you don't want to. You've got to bring that one over. You can't leave it there. When they mail it, we don't have control over it. And the by mail thing, especially when it comes to the ballots being sent, advanced processing is one thing. We capture everything right then and there. But the ballots being sent to the polls, I know the questions that my wardens and are gonna have from me,

like, Ryan, I have a ballot here that was either to one and a half or it's missing a page, what do I do? Definitely during my orientation with them, it's gonna be, well, we can hand count whatever has been submitted, but everything else, as you know, is going to be an under vote. It's gonna be counted as a blank. But just to make the public aware, that's when I have another commission

meeting to have another fuller conversation for everybody's education to really understand what is forthcoming. And we'll know basically what questions, has been locked off, if one went through a legal challenge, if one is going to be pushed off until 2028, fantastic.

But still, at this point, with this many questions, it's going on to a second page at a minimum. It's unavoidable. But I do want to definitely talk about this.

How many legitimate questions have you seen? Oh, wait, the interesting thing is we start certifying all the petitions for the referendum questions for this year in the middle of the municipal election. So we were sitting under stacks of paper, and then we had to postpone that during the election. It got pushed off even longer during the recount.

So I barely had the chance to kind of look at what the petitions were for. Looking at them now, I know one is regard to a tax rate question.

There are two election-related questions, which can be very interesting why I want to talk about the questions going forward. One would... be an all-inclusive state primary ballot. So rather than voters having the option of the Republican primary ballot or the Democratic primary ballot, it will look just like our preliminary election ballot. All the candidates,

regardless of their political affiliation, would be on one ballot, and then the top two vote-getters would advance on to the state election. So that is going to be one question that is going to be on the ballot this year. Which, actually, amazingly, a lot of voters are still confused by the primary process. Either they're rushing to the

office because they still remember the old independent days and want to register with the political party, thinking they cannot vote in the state primary. And I still think in the back of my mind, does that stop voters from going to vote in the state primary? Because, like, oh, son of a gun, I forgot to register as a Republican. Now I can't vote in the Republican primary. And I don't want voters to

think that. I'm like, no, you most certainly can, because you're unenrolled. Oh, I didn't know that. So I still think sometimes a voter's call saying, well, I really, really like candidate X in the Democratic primary. I like candidate Y in the Republican primary.

That's a tough decision. I have this conversation with my mother every election because she's unenrolled, and she likes certain candidates. Now when she wants to vote in September or in March, she's like, I really have to make up my mind now. You do.

That's a real responsibility that we give to unenrolled voters. So for a lot of people, it's like, and I've heard this before, why don't we do it like our preliminary election, where everybody's on one ballot, and the top two vote getters, and they do this actually in California, it's a jungle primary that they kind of muddle after

Louisiana, where the top two vote getters just move on to November. Interesting idea, but that's way above my pay grade. But that's gonna be one election question. The other one that is actually sponsored by Secretary Galvin himself is about election day voter registration.

So that should be interesting. I gotta take a look at that, and then if it's passed, the secretary will write the regulations of how I would implement that locally.

So there are two election-related questions. There's the tax rate question. and I'm drawing a blank on the others, that's why we're definitely gonna have, I've got so much in my mind right now with this, but we're definitely gonna have another conversation about what's gonna be in the bread voter guide, what races gonna be on the ballot, and

definitely the referendums heading into November's election, right after the state primary election. So nominees are in place, and then we can turn to this year's big state election.

Okay, all right, fantastic. All right, commissioners, with no other questions, Okay. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Okay. Motion made by Commissioner Campos. Can I get a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Santos. I've got to watch when I say those two names. All those in favor. Aye. We are adjourned.