Vote, Wellesley The last day to register to vote in Wellesleey for the town election is June 3 at 8pm. Voters may drop off their voter registration application in the drop box in front of Town Hall, 525 Washington St.

The last day to return an absentee ballot to Town Hall is June 13 at noon. All mail-in ballots must be returned to Town Hall by noon on June 13. Mail-in ballots will not be accepted at the polls.

There is still time to request a ballot. Please do so by completing the application form, including a signature, and returning it by email to Elections@wellesleyma.gov, or to the drop box or via mail to Wellesley Town Hall, 525 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA 02482.

Please note that it may take up to 3 or 4 days to travel via USPS.

Town Clerk KC Kato via email told us, “As of Friday, we had 4,195 (26%) of active voters request a mail-in ballot or vote early at Town Hall prior to March 17. About half of the ballots have been returned. Our 10-year average turn-out for local elections is 19%.”

Voting the new old-fashioned way

In-person voting will take place on Saturday, June 13; 8am – noon for all precincts at the Babson Recreation and Athletic Center, 3 Babson College Dr. The college’s new gym is enormous, which will keep social distancing easy, and there is plenty of parking at the site.

Making the dramatic change of holding the election in one location only has been put into place in order to simplify staffing, ingress/egress, and cleaning.

As for the reduction in voting hours, the town is only legally required to hold four hours of in-person voting. The decision to keep the hours short was made to keep the logistics of the election simple. For example, some of the usual poll workers will not want to volunteer due to COVID-19 concerns.

The election was originally scheduled for March 17, but was postponed.

Town Meeting also has been delayed. The new date is Monday, June 22.

Catch up on Wellesley 2020 election coverage and candidate interviews.

This post was sponsored by Yes for Seven