Board of Registrars Meeting: April 14, 2025

Present (In-Person): Cynthia Morgan, Rebecca Kraemer, Beth Hunter and Alissa Horsung

Attendees (Remote): None

Location: Town Hall, 6 Town Hall Drive, Princeton, MA 01541

Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 9:20am.

• Cynthia Morgan, Rebecca Kraemer, and Alissa Horsung welcomed Beth Hunter as a registrar for the town of Princeton. She had been appointed for a 3-year that ends on March 31, 2028. Beth Hunter introduced herself and explained her interests in serving the town in the capacity of a registrar.
• The Board briefly went over the use of signature stamps. If a registrar cannot meet to sign petition papers and nomination papers or there are multiple papers, the signature stamps could be used to make the process more efficient around deadlines. Beth agreed to have a signature stamp created for this purpose. Alissa will order a stamp of Beth’s signature after the meeting.

o    A motion was made and seconded to authorize the Town Clerk’s Office to perform all actions required by the Board of Registrars, according to 950 CMR 55.02 (12) and MGL Ch 53, Section 7. Vote was unanimous at 9:29am.

• Reorganization of the Board: Rebecca made a motion that was seconded by Beth to elect Cynthia as chair. Vote was unanimous at 9:33am.
• The Board reviewed the 2025 election deadlines, at the present date, no state elections were scheduled for the year. Alissa updated the Board with information regarding the election deadlines surrounding the May 12, 2025, town election.

o   The Citizens’ Caucus was held on March 12, 2025. All candidates nominated at the Citizens’ Caucus had signed the Citizens’ Caucus nomination paper. No candidates had filed to withdraw their name from the ballot and no objections to a nominated candidate had been filed by the 5pm deadline on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

o   The voter registration deadline to vote at the town election and town meeting is scheduled for 5pm, on Friday, May 2, 2025. The Town Clerk’s office will be open from 9am-5pm for in-person voter registration. At the present, there has been no increase in voter registration applications through the online voter registration system, by mail, and in person other than the norm.

o   The last day to request a mail-in ballot or a mail-in absentee ballot is 5pm, Monday, May 5, 2025.

o   The last day to vote absentee in-person is 5pm, Thursday, May 8, 2025.

• Alissa provided the Board with an update on the second mailing of the census/street list. She affirmed that more census responses were received since the second mailing of the census. For letters that were returned by the postal service that had forwarding addresses, letters were sent to those voters with a request for cancellation of voter registration form. Otherwise, no action was taken on census forms that were returned with an unable to forward address. Completed, signed and returned request of voter cancellation forms would assist in keeping the voter registration system as up to date as possible given the automatic voter registration from the 2022 VOTES Act that has increased the workload of processing registrations for existing voters. Voters who move out of town usually don’t prioritize notifying the clerk’s office of their move and requesting removal from the system. This has an impact on the the quorum needed to conduct town meeting, both special and annual meetings, as the quorum required is based on a percentage of the voter population in town per the general bylaws.
• After discussion, it was moved and seconded to dissolve the meeting. Vote was unanimous at 9:50am.

The meeting dissolved at 9:50am.

Respectfully submitted,

Alissa Horsung,

Town Clerk