ORANGE — The Annual Town Election for Orange will be held Monday, June 1. There are several important changes for this election due to COVID-19.
The location for this election has been changed to the R.C. Mahar Regional School gym. The hours that the election will be open have also changed: polls will be open form noon until 7 p.m. These changes have been made at the direction of the Board of Health to help protect the health and safety of the voters as well as the people working at the election.
Voters will enter the building near the main entrance to the gym. All people entering the building will be required to wear a mask while in the building.
While voting is a great learning opportunity for children, town officials ask that voters do not bring their children to the election as they are trying to keep people safe distances apart.
Once in the building, voters will proceed down the hall. The floor has red and blue blocks down the middle. These blocks are six feet apart so voters will be asked to use these to stay socially distanced. When entering the gym, a worker will have hand sanitizer and will give the voter some for their hands.
The voter will go to the appropriate check-in table where they will state their name and address to the worker. Once the worker verifies the voter status, they will be given a pen and a ballot and proceed to the voting booth. After completing the ballot, the voter will proceed to the check-out table, state their name and address again, and then place the ballot in the ballot box. From there, they will exit the gym and then the building.
This procedure may take a little longer and town officials ask voters to be patient. They are trying their best to run the election during very difficult times. None have experienced this before and everyone is learning how to run an election while respecting the guidelines in place to protect everyone.
Voters are asked not to stand around visiting outside the entrance and exit of the building so that others can enter and exit while also observing the social distance guidelines.
The debt-exclusion election for the School Building Project will be held Monday, June 22. The hours will be noon to 7 p.m.; it will also be held in the R. C. Mahar Regional School gym. The process will be the same as for the Annual Town Election. Again, voters are asked not bring their children with them to this election.
Any voter who does not want to come out on election day due to concerns of COVID-19 can request an absentee ballot for either election. To obtain an absentee ballot, the voter must make the request in writing. The request must state the voter’s name, their address, the election they request are requesting a ballot for, the address the ballot should be mailed to, and the request must be signed by every voter requesting a ballot.
The official last day to request an absentee ballot for the June 1 election is May 28 and the last day to request for the June 22 election is June 18. The ballots must be mailed to the voter and then mailed back to the town clerk and must be received by election day. It is recommended that voters not wait until the last day to make their request because if the ballot is delayed in the mail, the ballot might not make it back in time to be counted on election day. The Town Clerk urges anyone wishing to obtain an absentee ballot to make their request by May 20 for the Annual Town Election and by June 10 for the Debt Exclusion Election.
Any questions regarding either election, obtaining an absentee ballot or the process that will be followed on election day is asked to contact the Town Clerk at 978-544-1100, Ext. 101.