What's happening in Franklin, MA: Monday, October 19, 2026 ???

Monday, October 19

8:00am Early voting (Town Clerk's Office)

9:00am Tabulator Testing (Council Chambers)

4:00pm 7th Annual Pumpkin Patch (St John's Episcopal Church)

6:00pm    Friends of Franklin Library meeting (Library)

***  Town Meetings today ***

Board of Assessors Regular Meeting

Monday, October 19th Time: 9:00 AM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10192026-2565 

Tabulator Testing for November 3 Election - Council Chambers Room

Monday, October 19 Time: 9:00 AM

No agenda for this observation period

Franklin Housing Authority Meeting

Monday, October 19 Time: 4:30 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10192026-2567 

Planning Board Meeting

Monday, October 19 Time: 7:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10192026-2564 

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Find the full Community event calendar https://bit.ly/FranklinCommunityCalendar

If you have an event to add to the calendar, you can use the form to submit it for publication: https://bit.ly/Submit2Calendar

The Town meeting calendar is found https://www.franklinma.gov/Calendar.aspx

The School district calendar is found https://franklinpublicschooldistrictma.sites.thrillshare.com/o/fpsd/page/school-calendar

Tabulator testing scheduled for October 15 at 9 AM in Council Chambers

Tabulator testing for the biennial Town election 11/4/25 will be held October 15^th at 9:00 AM in the Town Council Chambers.

Town of Franklin: Tabulator Testing shows ballots will be read properly

The audio & notes of the testing conducted in 2022 is available to provide additional details on what is involved -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/11/town-of-franklin-tabulator-testing.html

1640 voters early ballots cast in the first week in Franklin, MA; tabulators tested on Wednesday

Via Town Clerk Nancy Danello:

"First full week of in person early voting complete!!  

Total of 1,640 voters! The flow was steady with NO lines!!  

Thank you to all of our voters!!"

Shared from -> https://www.facebook.com/share/p/grtYSehmHhKtXRrB/

tabulator testing

** 

I was able to stop by briefly on Wednesday to observe the set up and some of the execution of the tabulator testing process. Per Dyan Fitzgerald, Deputy Town Clerk, the tabulator testing went well.

For more info on the tabulator testing process, it is basically unchanged since reported on here ->

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/11/town-of-franklin-tabulator-testing.html

** 

Additional information on the Town Clerk and election processing can be found on the Town page ->     https://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerkelection-administrator

Tabulator Testing for Presidential Election - Weds, Oct 23 at 9 AM

Tabulator Testing for Presidential Election

Tabulator Testing for the Presidential election will be held on October 23rd beginning at 9 AM in the Council Chambers.

Please register with Town Clerk's Office if you plan on attending.

Shared from -> https://www.franklinma.gov/home/news/tabulator-testing-presidential-election

Tabulator Testing for Presidential Election - Weds, Oct 23 at 9 AM

Tabulator/Ballot Testing for the Presidential Primary - Weds, Feb 21 at 9 AM

Notice from the Town Clerk’s Office:

Tabulator/Ballot Testing for the Presidential Primary 3/5/2024 Will be held on Wednesday, February 21st in the Town Council Chambers

Beginning at 9:00 AM

Observers Welcome

Shared from the Town Clerk's page

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/news/notice_of_ballot-tabulator_testing.pdf

Note: Based upon prior testing, this may last less than an hour

Town of Franklin: Tabulator Testing shows ballots will be read properly (photo from testing in Oct 2022)

Local Elections - Tabulator/Ballot testing scheduled for Oct 18 at 10 AM

Good Afternoon,

Testing of the tabulators and ballots will be done on October 18, 2023 at 10 AM in the Council Chambers.  

Observers welcome.

Thanks,

Nancy Danello, CMC

Town Clerk

Justice of the Peace

Notary Public 

Shared from -> https://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerk/news/tabulatorballot-testing-10182024-local-election

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From the archives

Town of Franklin: Tabulator Testing shows ballots will be read properly - 10/26/22 (audio) ->  https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/11/town-of-franklin-tabulator-testing.html

Town of Franklin: Tabulator Testing shows ballots will be read properly

Town of Franklin: Tabulator Testing shows ballots will be read properly - 10/26/22 (audio)

FM #873 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 873 in the series. 

This session shares the Tabulator Testing conducted in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Building on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. 

Town Clerk Nancy Danello opened the session. Deputy Clerk Dyan Fitzgerald assisted and took over to close the session when Nancy left about 10:30ish for a meeting at the high school to plan for the election setup. 

9 or 10 election workers were sworn in to start the process. Other observers arrived as the process was underway. You can hear the welcomes, and overall instructions, and the various question and answer sections.

The full recording was edited to remove the extraneous conversations, noise, etc. The intent of the recording is to share the tabulator testing process as discussed in the open session. 

What is the tabulator? The tabulator is what most would refer to as the voting machine that reads the ballot and tallies the vote by precinct.

The outline of the steps as described by our Town Clerk is provided. The Early Opening sessions as mentioned did start on Friday, Oct 28 and complete Friday, Nov 4, 2022. The steps of the early opening process are provided in the show notes.

The Early Deposit session is scheduled for Saturday, Nov 5 at Franklin High School. They intend to process all the early ballots on Saturday. If something prevents that, they do have time scheduled on Sunday, if necessary.

Ballots still arriving via mail, election dropbox at the municipal building, etc. will be gathered sometime late Tuesday (Election Day), and transported to the high school for processing.

All results Tuesday are ‘unofficial”. The Town Clerk has a couple of days to back in the office to check all the totals before making them ‘official’ to submit to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

The show notes include links to the Town Clerk page and other election information.

The edited tabulator testing recording runs about 43 minutes, so let’s listen in.

Audio file ->  https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-873-town-of-franklin-tabulator-testing-10-26-22

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Town Clerk’s page ->  https://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerk 

Transcript of the audio (except for the intro and closing segments read by me (Steve Sherlock)which are spelled out in the 'show notes' document.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ICGkw21S1u9YOQnitAKsklW6j8A76aM5/view?usp=share_link

Tabulator Testing Process outline  ->  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I525elrG6Vhh_TwidcENERfjoRAEufxf/view?usp=share_link 

Early Opening outline ->  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I6tvfzTROGOl_dFYR5OKi58oCdrNAZBX/view?usp=share_link 

Vote by mail process diagram -> https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/news/vote_by_mail_process.pdf 

Town Clerk podcast episode talking about the voting changes in advance of the Sept State Primary ->

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/07/multiple-updates-discussed-with-town.html

Town Clerk podcast episode talking about the overall election process -> 

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/08/nancy-danello-franklin-town-clerk-talks.html

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial. 

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/  or www.franklin.news 

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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Town of Franklin: Tabulator Testing shows ballots will be read properly