Wellesley election postponed from March 17, 2020 to a date TBD

UPDATE: Wellesley’s Town Election has been postponed from Tuesday, March 17, 2020 to a date to be determined, but on or before June 30, 2020.

The Town of Wellesley depends on the active participation of its citizens in governance of the Town. Wellesley has 11 Boards and Committees on the ballot at the Annual Town election each year in March.

The 2020 local election for Wellesley will be held on Tuesday, March 17, as scheduled.

This Election 2020 post is sponsored by Lauren Duprey for School Committee. Lauren Duprey says, “I will bring a fresh perspective to the School Committee and focus on engaging openly with people. As a business and HR leader, I have experience managing large budgets and leading change. I look forward to serving our amazing community!”

The Town Clerk’s office is offering Absentee Voting over the counter at Town Hall, 525 Washington St., on the following
days and times:
 Friday, March 13, 8am – 5pm
 Saturday, March 14, 8am – noon
 Monday, March 16, 8am – noon

The Clerk’s office will closed for all business at noon on Monday, March 16 to prepare for the March 17 Election Day.

Can I mail in my absentee ballot?

Voters may mail in their absentee ballots. Absentee ballots are also available via mail. Requests using the Absentee Ballot Request Form may be emailed to [email protected]. As all ballots requested by email must be mailed through the US Postal Service, the clerk’s office encourages these email requests to be sent in by Friday, March 13.

Mail-in absentee ballots may be dropped off at the Payment Drop Box outside of Town Hall or returned directly to the Town Clerk’s Office by Tuesday March 17, 8pm.

Voting on Tuesday, March 17th — it’s on

Although the Wellesley Public Schools and the Tolles Parsons Center currently are closed to regular daily programming, school buildings and the Tolles Parsons Center WILL BE OPEN from 7am to 8pm on Tuesday March 17 for the election.

Voters will be restricted to the polling areas only.

All polling places will be disinfected prior to opening on March 17, 2020. In addition, high traffic areas and surfaces will be disinfected throughout the day.

Black-ink pens will be available at the polls; voters are welcome to bring their own black-ink pens. Voters are encouraged to bring their own hand sanitizer.

Here’s a list of polling places in Wellesley

Precinct A, Bates School, 116 Elmwood Rd.
Precinct B, Sprague School, 401 School St.
Precinct C, Upham School, 35 Wynnewood St.
Precinct D, Schofield School, 27 Cedar St.
Precinct E, Fiske School, 45 Hastings St.
Precinct F, Dana Hall School, Shipley Center, 142 Grove St.
Precinct G, Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St.
Precinct H, Tolles Parsons Center, 500 Washington St.

But which one is my polling place?

We’ve looked a lot of “services” that offer to help you find your polling place. Generally, these supposedly easy tools are run by some big-dawg campaigns looking to mine your email and other personal data. (No Wellesley candidates use such techniques.)

The best and easiest way we know of if you need to find out where to vote in Wellesley is the State of Massachusetts page. You just plug in your address, and your polling place pops up. You don’t get re-directed to some sketchy place on the web, and there’s a lot of helpful info such as who your elected officials are and how to get in touch with them.

Who’s running for office?

Here’s the list of who’s running for Wellesley office. Four of the races are contested: Moderator; Board of Selectmen; Board of Public Works; School Committee.

What is the referendum question?

There is one non-binding referendum question. It reads as follows:

Do you believe the Town of Wellesley should keep our current 7 neighborhood elementary school model by rebuilding and/or renovating the Hardy, Hunnewell and Upham Elementary Schools instead of closing one school and redistricting all our elementary students into 6 schools? Please vote YES or NO.

A YES vote would advise the Town of Wellesley to retain our current neighborhood school model by renovating and/or rebuilding the Hardy, Hunnewell and Upham Elementary Schools.

A NO vote would advise the Town of Wellesley to close either Hardy Elementary School or Upham Elementary School, without voter input on which school to close, and to re-district all our town’s elementary students into six schools.

Please get out the vote on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.