Wellesley’s Tuesday, March 17th Town election has been postponed, as announced in the town’s first virtual government meeting held on Monday (see Wellesley Media video embedded below).

In the meeting led by Executive Director of General Government Services Meghan Jop, and attended by the Board of Selectmen, Jop announced that the Registrar of Voters held an emergency meeting and voted 2 – 1 to seek a court order to postpone the election.

The Norfolk County Superior Court granted the order based on the need to protect the community by slowing the advance of corona virus (see court order below).

“Effective immediately, the court order gives the Board of Selectmen, the Town Clerk, and the Town Executive Director of Government Services the authority to reschedule the Town election for a later date sometime before June 30, 2020,” Jop said.

All absentee ballots already cast will be counted on the rescheduled election date.

Any elected official whose term would have expired on March 17, 2020 will remain in that position until the new elections are held and a successor has been elected and sworn in.

The news had candidates and referendum proponents and opponents alerting their supporters by email with talk of “rebooting” and “being back in touch as soon as we receive news about the new election date.” As one email opened, “This isn’t the election eve email we expected to be writing….”

More COVID-19 news

The town has updated its COVID-19-related information, including that 7 COVID-19 cases have been identified among residents (1 confirmed, 6 presumed positive) and that playgrounds are off-limits. The RDF, with some restrictions, remains open for residents.

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