Voices of Franklin: Kit Brady urges school families to vote on or before Nov 4

It is important to vote in the upcoming town election, especially if you have/will have children in Franklin Public Schools.

I read Mr. Steve Sherlock’s recent (10/25/25) editorial in Franklin Matters Weekly, titled, “80% of the Franklin registered voters don’t care” (Franklin MAtters Weekly: 80% of the Franklin (MA) registered voters don’t care), describing the general lack of interest in town elections in Franklin. It’s disappointing that so many residents don’t vote in local elections. Using data provided by Mr. Sherlock (with permission), the average voter turnout for all town elections since 2003 is about 18% (range 12.0-23.5). This suggests that many in Franklin are content to let a small group make decisions for everyone. Really? One could argue that town elections have relatively more direct impact on the daily lives of Franklinites than the State and Presidential elections that have greater voter turnout.

Why is it important to vote in town elections, especially if you have/will have children in Franklin Public Schools (FPS)? The upcoming election on November 4th will be consequential for the future of your children, especially given the dire financial forecasts for the town and schools. If you don’t vote, you’re letting a small number of people decide how your schools are funded. The people elected to the Town Council and School Committee on Tuesday will decide any future cuts in school funding and programs. Previous cuts to FPS over the past 20 years resulted in FPS families paying more for less via increasing fees; this trend will continue if more cuts are proposed. These cuts weaken our schools, and increased fees deepen income-based educational inequalities in Franklin. So much for a “free public education” in the birthplace of Horace Mann.

So, for those of you who have/will have children in Franklin Public Schools, the importance of voting for your kids in the upcoming town election cannot be overstated. Every vote counts, especially in local elections. If you are out at your kids’ events this weekend, ask around to see who is voting, and plead with those who aren’t to do so. The election is November 4th with numerous options to vote by alternative methods if you can’t make it to the polls on that date. Details may be found on the Town Clerk’s website (Town Clerk / Elections Division | Franklin, MA). 

Voting in this election isn’t just a civic duty — it’s a vote for your children’s future.

Kit Brady

Franklin resident

If you have something to say, you can find the guidelines here
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/03/introducing-voices-of-franklin.html

Voices of Franklin: Kit Brady urges school families to vote on or before Nov 4

Did you get a text about being NOT registered to vote? Per Mass Secretary of State don't click on that!

Mass Secretary of State (@SecretaryOfMass) posted  Thu, Aug 29, 2024:

We have received reports of Mass. voters getting text messages telling them they aren't registered to vote. 

Please don't click links sent by unknown numbers.

If in doubt, check your registration on our website or call your local election office: https://t.co/s1kcUqDE78  or ->   https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/elections/elesplash.htm

Shared from ->  https://x.com/SecretaryOfMass/status/1829207399494009333

Did you get a text about being NOT registered to vote? Per Mass Secretary of State don't click on that!

Franklin (MA) Elections Voter Turnout History: from 2003 - 2023

The chart depicting the voter count and percent for the elections from 2003 through 2023 

Franklin (MA) Elections Voter Turnout History: from 2003 - 2023

The table of info most recently from Town Clerk Nancy Danello (and prior Town Clerks) (PDF) ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PEhv7D0uIHBxGyE42JQpVuoTEZLeibXF/view?usp=drive_link

The Franklin Voter Guide for 2022 is available

The 2022 Franklin Voter Guide has been published.

The Franklin Voter Guide for 2022 is available

"The Franklin Area Voting Guide is intended to be a non-partisan resource created by private individuals to allow the people of Franklin, Massachusetts, and surrounding communities to cast an educated vote on issues that impact our community.

Information contained in this guide is provided by candidates and taken verbatim from their survey responses, or sourced from candidate websites/social media accounts, public statements, town halls, and past achievements."

Visit the 2022 Franklin Voter Guide ->    https://www.franklinvoterguide.org/2022-voter-guide

Did you vote Nov 2? Please respond to this quick survey on what you thought of the candidate information available

To help prepare for the next local or biennial election, let's capture what you think about the information available for this one while it is still 'fresh' at hand. The original sources of information covered via this survey are the Franklin Voters Guide, Milford Daily News/Wicked Local, Frank Falvey's interviews for Franklin TV, the series by Franklin Matters, and the two candidate nights. "

Survey closes this weekend. We have more than 80 responses but there were more than 5,000 voters so there is an opportunity!

There are only four questions and the survey should take less than a couple of minutes to respond to. Thanks you!

Did you vote Nov 2? Please respond to this quick survey on what you thought of the candidate information available

2021 Franklin Biennial Election Information Survey

To help prepare for the next local or biennial election, let's capture what you think about the information available for this one while it is still 'fresh' at hand. The original sources of information covered via this survey are the following:

• Franklin Voters Guide
• Milford Daily News/Wicked Local
• Frank Falvey's interviews for Franklin TV
• the candidate question series by Franklin Matters
• the two candidate nights (11/14/21 & 11/21/21)

If the survey form is not visible, please use this link

https://forms.gle/N3rkQhuHHrU6KUkQ6

2021 Franklin Biennial Election Information Survey

Vote today for Board of Assessors, Board of Health, Planning Board, School Committee, Town Clerk and Town Council candidates

The election season ends today with the in-person voting for all Franklin precincts at Franklin High School. Pools open at 6 AM and will close at 8 PM.

It is anticipated that about an hour after the polls close the results should be ready. Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm or 102.9) will be prepared to broadcast from the gym when they are ready.

Less than 1,000 voters had cast their ballots as of close of business at the Town Clerk's office on Friday, Oct 29, 2021. This combined the early vote, vote by mail and absentee ballots. Early voting was also available on Monday, Nov 1 during office hours.

How many will turnout?

History shows that for "Franklin elections" we get about a 20% turnout. I would have expected move votes cast by now given the accessibility of early voting and vote by mail. We'll see how many go through the doors at Franklin High School.

The chart below summaries the vote totals by election type from 2003 through 2020. The PDF contains the current registered voter totals by precinct.

vote totals by election type from 2003 through 2020

PDF of the voter turnout table shown:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15f8xc1zFwK-joxHP6380J7IBZO05iWhj/view?usp=sharing

PDF of the registered voters by precinct:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GxeL-NWPenGKEcMTvvE4sbIgE39XoDM2/view?usp=sharing

If you still need to decide who to vote for, the information collected can be found here

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/07/franklin-election-collection-2021.html

The Franklin Voters Guide is available

The Franklin Voters Guide is a "work in progress". 

"The Franklin Area Voting Guide is intended to be a non-partisan resource created by private individuals to allow the people of Franklin, Massachusetts, and surrounding communities to cast an educated vote on issues that impact our community.

Information contained in this guide is provided by candidates and taken verbatim from their survey responses, or sourced from candidate websites/social media accounts, public statements, town halls, and past achievements."

It is a collaborative effort: 

• As the Franklin Matters interviews (email and audio) are completed, they are being shared there. 
• Frank Falvey, is recording interviews with candidates. Those audio files will be part of the Voter Guide repository. 

So do we have everyone accounted for yet? No

• There are some candidates completed and there are some in the edit/publishing mix
• There are candidates with interviews scheduled for next week 
• There are candidates working to confirm the scheduled for their interviews 

And yes, there are some that have not yet reached out to either the folks behind the Voters Guide or Frank Falvey, or myself to provide information to share.

 

What can you do between now and the time you cast your vote

• Read up on what the candidates have shared
• If you find a candidate, who doesn't have info, prompt them to reach out to get their info into the mix
• If you find a candidate you want to follow up with on a topic or two, the info to contact them is available with what they have published. Go for it. Don't be bashful

If you haven't registered to vote, please do so by October 13. 

Absentee ballot applications are available. 

Vote by mail applications are available. 

Early voting in the Town Clerk's office will be available once the printed ballots are available (possibly the week of Oct 12).

Early voting is scheduled for Saturday, Oct 23 and Sunday, Oct 24 from 10 AM to 1 PM on both days.

On of course, all precincts vote at Franklin High School on Nov 2, 2021 from 6:00 AM to 8 PM.

The Franklin Voter Guide ->  

https://www.franklinvoterguide.org/2021-voter-guide

The Franklin Voters Guide is available

Boston Globe: “The electoral system was the cause of the inequity”

"In Everett today, white, non-Hispanic residents make up less than 44 percent of the population, but they dominate city government. Seventy-five percent of the elected councilors and school committee members are white.

That’s no accident, critics say; it’s a natural outgrowth of the city’s electoral system.

Everett is one of several cities in Massachusetts where all local officials are elected at-large, and none by individual wards or districts. For years, civil rights specialists have called that a recipe for exclusion. White residents, even as a minority, often vote as a bloc and drown out the voices of Black and brown voters. Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit legal organization, recently put Everett councilors on notice that they’re vulnerable to a challenge under the Voting Rights Act.

“There’s no shot against anybody because they’re a white man or a white woman. We are violating the federal Voting Rights Act,” Everett City Councilor Gerly Adrien, the first Black woman to serve on the council, warned her colleagues at a December council meeting."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/26/metro/how-underrepresented-candidates-mass-communities-can-be-squelched-by-electoral-systems/

Editorial note: Voting for our Town Council or School Committee by precinct rather than "at-large" (as we do today) may be more of a consideration as our population grows. In the meantime, there are other practical ways to increase the diversity of candidates for our local government and ensure a fair and equitable voice "in the room where it happens." We do need to work at being a government "of the people, by the people, for the people." 

 

CommonWealth Magazine: T cuts likely to remain; voter turnout numbers highlight wealth, racial disparities

From CommonWealth Magazine we share two articles of interest for Franklin:

"Most T cuts will stand even with new fed money"

"THE MBTA will receive at least $250 million in federal funding under the latest COVID-19 stimulus package, but agency officials plan to move forward with most of their planned service cuts and direct most of the new money toward the capital budget.

MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said Monday that the T expects to get somewhere roughly between $250 million and $300 million in additional support, up to $17 million of which will go toward bumping service back up on high-ridership bus routes and maintaining evening commuter rail service.

Despite calls from activists and lawmakers to change course with the federal aid — plus a $52 million upgrade in the T’s state sales tax revenue outlook — the agency plans otherwise to “proceed with a majority of service changes” that the Fiscal and Management Control Board approved in December, Poftak said."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/most-t-cuts-will-stand-even-with-new-fed-money/

 

"Turnout numbers highlight wealth, racial disparities"

"IN THE WEALTHY towns of Dover, Sudbury, and Carlisle, more than 90 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the November election.  

In the poorer cities of Springfield, Lawrence, and New Bedford, 55 percent of voters or fewer turned out.  

While the presidential election drew record turnout in Massachusetts, voter turnout statistics highlight yet another measure of a tale of two commonwealths, according to a report released Monday by MassVOTE, a nonprofit that seeks to increase voter participation.   

Communities that were educated, white, and wealthy saw the largest voter turnout. Communities that were poor, minority, and less educated saw the lowest number of voters. Initiatives like no-excuse voting by mail that were meant to make it easier to vote did not help those disparities, and may have even exacerbated them, since state statistics show that voters in wealthier communities were more likely to take advantage of mail-in voting. "

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/turnout-numbers-highlight-wealth-racial-disparities/

 

Direct Link to the MassVOTE report  https://4da245b5-2040-4b7c-8d3a-890d1f13e948.filesusr.com/ugd/ba7258_e4676f6437c14017818263705b266b15.pdf

 

MassVOTE is a Non-Partisan Voting Rights & Issue Advocacy Organization

 

 

CommonWealth Magazine: steps to boost voting rights; let MA home bakers do their thing

 From CommonWealth Magazine:

"3 steps Mass. should take to boost voting rights

Too many of the state’s voters are disenfranchised"

"SINCE THE SHOT heard around the world at the battle of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts has been at the forefront of modern democracy. The Massachusetts Constitution – which was drafted by John Adams – formed the model for the United States Constitution and remains the oldest continuously-operating constitution in the world. Despite this history of democratic leadership, in recent years Massachusetts has fallen behind other states in ensuring that all eligible voters can register, vote, and have their votes count. The upcoming legislative session is an opportunity to change that and build on the work done in 2020 to open up voting to more people during the pandemic.

It was encouraging that Massachusetts leaders, like those in many other states, took important steps this year to expand early voting and to send vote-by-mail applications to every registered voter."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/3-steps-mass-should-take-to-boost-voting-rights/

 

"Let Mass. home bakers do their thing

Patchwork of regulations make starting a business difficult"

"RETIRED SALON OWNER and daycare provider Marcia Donnelly did not want to fight City Hall. She just wanted to sell home-baked sourdough bread from her kitchen in Southbridge.

Homemade food businesses are common and easy to start in 48 states, and have become increasingly popular during COVID-19. Worried about global supply chains and general uncertainty, the pandemic has boosted demand for fresh, locally sourced products. Unfortunately, Massachusetts has resisted the trend, along with New Jersey. “It was a battle from the get-go to set up my business,” Donnelly says."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/government/let-mass-home-bakers-do-their-thing

In the News: Cobi Frongillo wins Franklin Town Council seat

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

Cobi Frongillo, 23, has been elected to fill the open Franklin Town Council seat by a landslide after Saturday’s Special Election.

The youngest of the four candidates running received 2,500 votes on Saturday – over half of the overall votes, according to unofficial election results. 

Despite a snowstorm that blanketed the region from morning to night, 4,267 residents cast their votes at Franklin High School to choose who should fill the vacant Town Council seat left by Eamon McCarthy Earls in September. 

Greg Chiklis received the second-highest amount of votes with 802 votes, followed by Alan Earls, father of Eamon McCarthy Earls, with 723 votes and KP Sompally with 229 votes.

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.milforddailynews.com/story/news/local/2020/12/06/cobi-frongillo-sweeps-franklin-town-council-seat-left-eamon-mccarthy-earls/3821864001/

The official results are now available

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/12/special-election-dec-5-2020-official.html

voter turnout for Franklin elections 2003-2020

Final results of the Nov 3, 2020 election for Franklin voters

With the 20552 votes cast, this was the largest single total in Franklin, MA history. However, they represent 83% of the registered voters and in the Presidential election of 2016, we turned out 86%.

 

Download a copy here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NkMBu-tkFhDzIIpP6TiefQQm9wnA-D44/view?usp=sharing

 

or below

  ...  

 

Final results of the Nov 3, 2020 election for Franklin voters

 

In the News: "Secretary Galvin expects historical turnout to exceed 2016"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"Voter turnout for the Nov. 3 election is projected to be double the record-setting number of ballots cast in the Sept. 1 state primaries, and even exceed the historical 75% voter turnout in the 2016 election.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said more will be known about the expected high turnout in the next week as early voting began Saturday and will continue through Oct. 30.

“I’m hopeful. It seems the level of interest is there,” Galvin said in a telephone interview last week. “We had 3.3 million votes in 2016. It seems we will exceed that. We’ve seen a continuing rising number of people registering to vote.”

The historical voter turnout — expected as well in some other parts of the country and driven by the hotly contested presidential race — is also the result of a massive expansion of mail-in voting due to concerns about crowded polling places during the coronavirus pandemic."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://franklin.wickedlocal.com/news/20201017/secretary-galvin-expects-historical-turnout-to-exceed-2016

 

When I talked with Town Clerk Nancy Danello at FHS on Monday, over 1,400 had already been to early vote on Sat-Sun and mid-day Monday. Over 12,000 mail ballots were sent out to registered Franklin voters.

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 24.  Visit the Town Clerk page for office hours to register in person  https://www.franklinma.gov/town-clerk  or register online  https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleidx.htm

 

the early voting schedule for Franklin

Franklin Community Voting Guide - November 2020

The Franklin Community Voting Guide for November 2020 is ready for your use to prepare to vote.

Download your copy here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fIIde4DfyieqnK2hTsZDDfMLmoFcqzoO/view?usp=sharing 

 

 

Franklin Community Voting Guide - November 2020

 

Election recap: Statewide in MA 47 percent of voters voted by mail

From the Boston Globe, an article of interest for Franklin:

"Faced with a historic number of voters, the Sept. 1 Massachusetts primary avoided the weeks-long delays that beset some New York elections. Officials said there is no apparent rash of potential fraud, as officials in Georgia are investigating. “Very positive” is how the state’s top elections officer described the experience.

It was also, in effect, a test run.

With less than eight weeks until the Nov. 3 general election, the scramble to distribute millions of vote-by-mail applications is beginning anew, and local clerks — some of whom struggled with the deluge of primary ballots — are girding for a turnout that could be double, if not more, than the record-setting 1.7 million ballots cast in the primary.

That expected flood is partially the result of the newly expanded option to vote by mail, a route nearly 813,000, or roughly 47 percent of voters, took for the Sept. 1 primary, according to data provided by state officials. And about 1.4 million people have already requested mail-in ballots for the general election, and Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office expects that number to grow as additional mailings asking if voters want a ballot begin to go out."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/11/metro/by-most-accounts-massachusetts-primary-was-historic-success-now-comes-hard-part/

Election recap: Statewide in MA 47 percent of voters voted by mail

Franklin, MA: Primary Results - Sep 1, 2020

A quick tally of voter totals by party shows over 9,000 voted in the Primary either in person, by mail or absentee ballot or via early voting.

Party	Voters
Democrat	7156
Green	16
Libertarian	43
Republican	1874
Total	9089

** Pending confirmation of the exact total of voters and percent registered from our Town Clerk, Teresa Burr.

Download a copy of the results PDF here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C9p4P1fVCdqVLjXEdWhUWGOKslmfRmHk/view?usp=sharing 

 

 

Franklin, MA: Primary Results - Sep 1, 2020

Commonwealth Magazine: "Voting reforms reinvigorated democracy"

From CommonWealth Magazine we share two articles of interest for Franklin: 

"When the Legislature passed an unprecedented expansion of mail-in voting, they did it for this year only, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that makes crowding into polling places unsafe.

But now, amid record-breaking turnout in this week’s primary, some are calling for mail-in voting to become a permanent feature of Massachusetts elections.

“Voter turnout in the September 1 primary makes one thing abundantly clear– vote by mail should be here to stay,” said Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, executive director of MassVOTE, a coalition that aims to expand voting access, in a statement.

The last time turnout in a state primary election topped 1 million was in 1990, when 1.5 million people voted. This year, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin says that turnout will be more than 1.5 million, although he still did not have a final number. "

Continue reading the article online
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/is-mail-in-voting-here-to-stay-2/

"AT THE START of July, the Legislature passed a landmark bill to expand early voting, implement a secure vote-by-mail system, and strengthen safety measures for in-person voting. Tuesday’s primary was the first major test of these important reforms. They worked.

More people voted in this year’s state primary than ever before. According to preliminary data, over 1.6 million voters cast ballots, totaling more than a third of all registered voters. In recent state primaries, fewer than 1 million voters have showed up at the polls, with voter participation rates mired in the teens and low twenties. This year, several competitive races for Congress helped increase voter participation, but the high turnout was also a product of Massachusetts’ new election laws. In the face of an ongoing  pandemic, Massachusetts did not simply protect voting rights—we reinvigorated our democracy.

The Legislature’s voting reforms gave voters several different ways to cast their ballot. For the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, voters had the choice to vote by mail, to vote in person during a week-long early voting window, or to vote in person on the day of the election. The intent was to empower voters to vote in a way that worked best for them, and it is clear that people availed themselves of the opportunity. Over 1 million people requested mail-in ballots, 180,000 people voted during early voting, and hundreds of thousands more went to the polls on election day. While the vast majority of people who requested a mail-in ballot were able to return it successfully, voters still had the ability to vote in person if they encountered difficulties in the vote-by-mail process."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/voting-reforms-reinvigorated-democracy/

Commonwealth Magazine:  "Voting reforms reinvigorated democracy"

In the News: Franklin vote completes after midnight Thursday (Friday morning)

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin: 

"On Thursday afternoon, Debra O’Malley, a spokesperson with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office, said 3,000 full ballots had been misplaced in Franklin and went uncounted on election night. The same thing happened with about 750 ballots in Newton and 100 ballots in Wellesley.

Because ballots must be counted in view of the public, and on election night, tabulating the missing ballots after that day required a Suffolk Superior Court order, which the Secretary’s office says was granted at about 5 p.m. Wednesday night.

Previous reports put the number of uncounted ballots in Franklin at about 600."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200903/updated-it-has-been-determined-more-than-3000-ballots-have-not-been-counted-in-franklin-after-more-boxes-of-ballots-are-found?rssfeed=true 

Boston Globe article

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/04/metro/ap-declares-jake-auchincloss-winner-fourth-district-democratic-primary/

Commonwealth Magazine article

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/glitches-mar-tuesdays-election/

Why did it take so long? The manual process of counting is not efficient

You can help with the Franklin Voter's Guide update for November's Election

The Franklin Voter's Guide is being updated for the November election. This time the group developing the guide is looking to get questions for the candidates sourced from Franklin residents and voters.  

Please take a couple of minutes to respond. This is only a two question survey. 

What are the most important issues for you in the State Senate and State Representative races?  

If you could pass the survey on or circulate to your friends and neighbors, that would be great.  

Survey link =  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T5TGPQH 

You can help with the Franklin Voter's Guide update for November's Election

The Franklin Voter's Guide for the Primary was previously shared here

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/08/franklin-community-2020-voting-guide.html