 Hello, my name is Dr. Demetria Rujo-Chabaz and I am on the board of registers for the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. And today we're going to be focusing on our new town clerk and her many roles within this community and on voting. So I'd like to introduce our guest, Shaveena Martin. Shaveena, hello. Good morning or good afternoon. Good afternoon. Shaveena, thank you for joining us. Shaveena is a lifelong resident of the city of Springfield. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from American International College and an advanced paralegal certificate from Bay Path University. Go Bay Path! I'm taught there, so I know the folks are really wonderful. Shaveena's career path includes experience in optometry, banking, medical billing, and entrepreneurship. However, in 2013 she discovered her passion for elections and municipal government. Initially hired by the city of Springfield Board of Elections as part-time election assistant. Shaveena excelled and was promoted to full-time election assistant within six months. That's pretty rapid. Five years later she was promoted to the election specialist position which ultimately led to her appointment as the Amherst town clerk. She's single with no children and no fur baby, so no pets, but we are so glad to have you here in the town of Amherst, Shaveena. Thank you again for joining us. Shaveena, can you talk a little bit about what led you here to Amherst and what does a town clerk do? Sure, so I absolutely, I, what I left out of my bio is I had, ever since I was six years old, I always wanted to be an attorney. Knew that that was my career path and I have struggled, I have always struggled with standardized testing and so I had taken the LSAT two times and both times fell short of mark by six points of where I needed to be to gain acceptance at Western New England University. When I first started it was still Western New England College and so one of the things I used to always say is I never wanted to get into politics. I was like I never wanted to get into politics and lo and behold right at the height of the, when the, we have the mortgage crisis and things like that in the market dropped and we found ourselves in, you know, our generation's recession and degeneration. I was unemployed and, you know, when you have student loan debt and you have a mortgage, you know, you're looking for a job and so that's what I was doing. I was applying everywhere and it was the city of Springfield that, you know, was the first to say yes and I had no idea what being an election assistant consisted of but, you know, just based on the job description, I think that I can do that and when I got hired and, you know, it was everything about municipal government unless it specialized like in finance and you kind of learn it on the job and I just, I don't know, when I got there and I had the environment and just learning about elections, I had no idea as a registered voter who's been voting since 18, I never knew the behind the scenes and I, when I began, it was right after Senator Kennedy had passed so we had a special election. So in my first, right, two weeks after I got hired, we had a special election and then Springfield had a special election for the casino referendum. So in 2013, I was kind of thrown into the fire. There were five elections in that one year. So that's I was able to move straight up and I just took to it. I have no idea. I just took to it and it just has become part of a passion that I absolutely love all of it, all of the moving parts. Fast forward, you know, I had moved up as far as I could move in Springfield. So being the election specialist was right under the commissioner and so and that would be the next progression up in Springfield would have been the election commissioner. And that department was full of hardworking young women. And so nobody was retiring. They still are not going to retire. They probably still have about 30, 40 years before they're towards retirement and in municipal government, that's the typical span most people stay 30 or 40 years. So one actually just like yourself, Dr. Chavez, one of the board of registrars had seen the opening the first time the town clerk when Sandra had originally retired. And so he has said, I think, you know, he came when they had a meeting on one of their quarterly meetings and he goes, you know, there's an opening in Amherst and he had just put it out there to all of the students. You ladies, you know, you should think about applying. He goes, sounds like, you know, position. And so I was like, I don't know. And I went ahead and I applied and I went through the interview process and I wasn't selected first time. And so last year when the position reopened after Margaret left, I didn't apply. So that's it. It's a one of those I call it when opportunity knocks at the door because I didn't reapply. And I was working and preparing for the November election when the HR director, Evelyn, she contacted me. She said, Hey, we still have this, you know, the position has reopened. We still have your application on file. We were wondering if you were still interested. And I was like, Sure. So we kind of, you know, I gave, I sent over an updated resume and that was called the second time. And it was quick. And I got the appointment. And so here I am. And so the things that appealed to me about the job was the difference between Springfield and Amherst and a lot of communities because of the population size of Springfield, the clerk's office and the election office are separate here in town. I do it all. So I have I call them subtitles on the town clerk with a laundry list of subtitles. So in addition to being the town clerk, I am on the registrar of voters. I am the records access officer for public records request. I am also a justice of the peace. I'm a commissioner to qualify so that I can swear in all of our elected officials and anyone who gets appointed to any border committee, and all of those titles that come with being a town clerk. And I absolutely love the position because I have a passion for elections. That's, you know, the belly of the of the role, but the town clerk learning vital records and all of those things I love to learn and the challenges that come in the role are what keep me interested in keeping me hungry. It's amazing. It's you don't realize how central a town clerk is to the running of this community. It is. We are truly, you know, part of our role is the biggest part of our role with handling vital records, which is vital to every community in the state. We handle all births, deaths and marriages. So all walks of life from the day you're born, you get married into the day you pass away. We handle it all here. And it's been more important in this season, especially with COVID. And I won't I don't want to jump ahead, but we'll get into, you know, the how vital we are to a community. And in addition, we handle all business security. So, you know, we get entrepreneurs and young people who are coming to start businesses. We have our, you know, our lifelong businesses that have been a staple to the community that renew their licenses, you know, every four years. So it is our office is central to many, many parts moving parts within the town. So that's that's interesting, because you had been on the job. I mean, relatively new hire, you had been on the job for pretty short time. And then all of this hit in terms of the quarantine and COVID. How has your job changed since the quarantine? The job itself has, it's improved. That's what I will say. So personally, COVID and the shutdown and quarantine has been a blessing for me personally being a new town clerk and a new department head. And while I love the public, I absolutely love the public, having the restrictions and having the isolation from the public has allowed me the opportunity to really get a handle and learn the role of being a town clerk and to be able to develop as a town clerk to develop as a department head, and to really build a rapport with my staff. You know, I came in about a week and a half before the November local election. And so, and it was just elections back and back. So we had our local election in November, as soon as we racked that up, we had early voting passed for the presidential primary. And then right after that was the presidential actual primary election. So that's where we were in the in my like first 90 days. So I was still in my election mode. And so that's how I was able that's how I was operating. And so it didn't allow me the time to really get adjusted in appointment with the office and with the staff, we were just boom, boom, boom, moving. In this season, we've been able to slow down. So what we did was part of the town itself shutting down. We built a contingency plan and we kind of went back to basics. Because our office handles so many different things. One of the things that fall asked us, Tommy and your bottom and asked all department heads was review your department. And what are your vital roles? Because those are going to be the things that we focus on. But sometimes we have a lot of roles that are kind of that have been additions that we do as either a courtesy or things like that that aren't the main focus of what we do. And so getting back to that has been helpful. And for instance, in it, you know, we were preparing right after the March election to get into dog license. I didn't have any experience with dog license. And so right away, you know, residents know things that are cyclical, like, you know, our property tax when dog licenses are due. So we had like in that first week, when we shut down to public on March, we had already had like 300 dog licenses that were that needed to be processed. But we were able to do that and do it in a timely manner where people's checks didn't start to stale date and things like that. Because we were close to the public and we weren't performing at full capacity, we were really down to the basics of the vital records, dog licenses, business certificates. So you came in right before the November election, I was appointed one of the board of registrars. Can you explain to those watching what does a board of registrar do? And how do they work with you within the town? So our board of registrar, we're required to have a board of registrars that is three or more members. That's mandated by the mass general laws. And everyone has to be representative of all political parties. We can have a minimum of three in your advisory in your capacity in that we meet as often as we need to discuss things that are relevant to elections, the operations of elections, the office. And we discuss those things. So when we meet, we discuss anything that's upcoming in elections, we go over what everyone's roles and responsibilities are. And then you all give us feedback based on what you hear from the public. And you can make just, you know, you can make observations and suggestions on maybe ways of improvement or policy changes and things like that. So you're an advisory committee, and you're you get appointed by the by the town manager for a term and it's either usually two years. Some are longer. The NGL does not state the length of your appointment here in town. The town manager typically does it on two years just to see where you are and how you're feeling and if you're comfortable. But yeah, so it's been a pleasure working with everyone you all have been vital for us. You've been an extra set of hands and ears because you do you have that ability. Part of your role in some of the powers that you have are that you guys are key on election day. And you can go out and perform the same duties I can. So you can go out and oversee all of our polling locations. And you were vital during early voting. You guys were very vital and early voting you help you are hands on on election night and part of your role also includes you review all provisional ballots and you determine whether or not those are if they are going to be accepted. And I don't think many people understand or you're even aware of that you all we have a special meeting right after the elections and you all review all provisional ballots. I was not aware of it and it's actually been a really informative and exciting way in which I can play a part in not only the elections but in our town's government. So I've been really pleased particularly with your clarity. I think it has made my role as a board of registrar easy, you know knowing what we're supposed to do and when. So I hope that you know when people watch this that they really appreciate what you're doing in town what your role is and other volunteers such as the board of registrars speaking of elections. Of course we have another election coming up this November. Are there any laws or policies that are recent that we should be aware of as the voting public such as mail in voting such as early voting. How is that going to operate in 2020. So there is there's been a lot of legislative change. So beginning right after COVID. So once we went into quarantine our legislators and our governor knew that we were going to need to respond to COVID. We knew that this is a state and federal election year. And we meet we knew that many of the changes surrounding elections was going to require legislative change because most of the elections are regulated by state and federal law. And so with that our local state reps and our senators and our congressmen and women they began developing bills around that. So I was I had the fortune the good fortune of being able to I'm a first I'm a member of the Massachusetts Council for Association. So that's an association with all of that any clerk in the state can be a member of. And so they work closely in conjunction with our legislators. And so myself state rep dome have reached out to me there were several bills that were created. And so they were asking for you know our feedback and input on those bills. I began reviewing bills in late April going over the different bills that were being proposed by the different state reps and legislators just to develop a plan on how we could respond to COVID and make in person elections and early voting and things like that because in just as a little background education so and for our voting public. The easiest way to think of elections is every year there's an election. Elections are dictated by if it's an even number year or if it's an odd number year. So all excuse me all of your local elections occur in odd number years. And many towns have annual town meetings that was fired by the national law. Even numbered years are always state and federal election. And so in even numbered years is when we will have early voting and early voting became effective in 2016. And so and that was by legislative move. There was a group who had that as a ballot question ballot question made it on the 2014 ballot and passed and went into effect. So we are now embarking 2020 and Bart makes the third year or third time that we've held early voting 2020 has been significant and historical for a number of reasons. Initially early voting was only in October and it was only held in advance of the general November election. And there was legislation that passed last year so that we could have early voting for the presidential. And so now these bills came about in response to covid to allow early voting for September. Our September state primary. So our state seats are up. So your state reps and depending on your district or your where you are. It could be your registrar probably in those state held seats could be up for reelection for September. Now November is always the general election. So you'll have all of the state seats plus the federal the presidential election will be all on all on one ballot. September is election is what we call a partisan election. So there will be ballots. There will be several ballots based on political parties. And so in the state we have Democrat Republican Libertarian and Green Rainbow. So there'll be those four ballots. And then if you are an independent or in the state of Massachusetts with no more than an old voter you get the option to choose which of those four ballots that you can vote on. November it'll be down to just the Democrat Republican Libertarian and Green Rainbow if there are candidates for all four parties for November. Just that's my election geek. But I also like to educate the voters in the public so that they will know what to expect whether they choose to vote by mail or if they go out in person. And with that getting back to the legislation. So fast forward we got down to a bill last month where both the House and Senate had agreed upon the language for the bill that would go before the governor for the governor to sign. And so that bill went into conference committee the last week of June. And so because some of the language different. And so they came to an agreement last week and it made it to the governor's desk right after right before 4th of July. So the governor received that bill on last Thursday. And then he signed it on Monday of this week. So July 6th. So everyone you're getting this hot off. Right. And so here it is. Hot off the press. So we will be having early voting for the September primary. And those dates are the. And will. And I will do later on. Those are going to be up on the town clerk's page. They're up on the secretary of state page. And then we'll do our. And we'll have it up on Amherst media as well. We'll put it up on Amherst media. So here's some of the changes. So early voting will be beginning Saturday, August 22 through Friday, August 28. The law has required that we offer early voting in person on the weekend. So that's August 23 22nd and 23 Saturday and Sunday. And we haven't set the times yet or the location. And so that information will be forthcoming in the weeks to come. It'll be really soon. Ironing out some things there. So TBD. And then election day is September 1st. One of the other things that occurred is there will be early voting in October. And October begins. And I just going to check my notes because those dates have changed several times. But I want to get everyone final dates. So for October. October is a longer period. So typically in October, early voting is 11 days before the general election. So it's going to begin Saturday again, October 17th and run through Friday, October 30. And so again, those dates and time those hours in the location have yet to be set. So TBD. And we'll keep everyone posted on that. And you'll have well enough notice. And if you are going to to vote by mail, then those dates, you know, you don't really have to be concerned. Now what to know about vote by mail? So everyone, part of the legislation that changed as well as it required that the Secretary of State mail every registered voter in the Commonwealth a 2020 vote by mail application. So every registered voter will receive that. It will come postage paid with a postage paid envelope and it will be addressed to your local town clerk's office. So if you choose that you would like to vote by mail, you fill that form out and you just send it right back to us. And then once we receive the ballots, we will mail you a ballot and your ballot the envelope for your ballot you to return your ballot will also be postage paid. And those are things that were passed in the law because previously the postage would be on the voter. But this time to make it easier. And as part of the response to COVID, we figured we the Secretary of State would pick up the tab on that. Some other changes, we still have to offer in person vote. Everyone has the right to show up at the polling location and vote in person. And as such, the Secretary of State is also going to provide PPE. So personal protective equipment and that equipment is consisting of gloves, masks, and disinfecting wipes. The town is going to go a step further. We're going to have plexiglass and we're going to be doing a lot of disinfecting and sanitation in the polling location. So anyone who chooses to go out and vote, the environment will be safe and it'll be safe for all of our poll workers as well. I'm trying to think if I'm forgetting anything. Real quick, you said for the for the mail in voting, it's for registered voters. What if you are a new voter first time voting or just moved to this area? Can you get something to do a mail in ballot? I'm glad you asked. That's a great segue. So the other part of the legislation that changed as well is it extended the deadline for registering to vote. So originally the deadline to register to vote in time for the September primary was August 12. That deadline has now been moved to August 22, which coincides with the first day of voting. And there are multiple methods for registering to vote. So anyone who is not a registered voter, or if you now reside in Amherst and you were registered in another city or town and you need to move your registration here in town, you need to do so by August 22. You can do so right on the Secretary of State's website. And it comes over to us electronic. You can mail you can call us and we can mail you a voter registration form. You can complete it and mail it back to us. And if you go to any state agencies, so if you go to the registry to either renew your license or to register a vehicle, you can register there. If you happen to sign up for Mass Health or WIC, any of those state services, they can register you to vote as well. So that and then the deadline for the November third election, the deadline to register to vote will be Saturday October 24. Same thing. Now once you register to vote, if you decide that you want to that you would like to vote by mail, you can simply we have the application up on our website right now, or you can call us and we can send it to you. And you can always email that back to us as well. We set up a brand new email box about a month ago called vote at AmherstMA.gov. So you can fill that application out if you have the ability to scan it, you can scan it and email it back to us. Or if you if you take a picture of it, you can then upload your picture and email it over to us as well. Great. So these are all new fresh off the presses, so to speak, policies and laws that you've brought to us. Thank you so much for being part of that decision making on the state level and then bringing that information back to us in the community that's really valuable. I'm going to have to have you back to talk about what something that I think is really exciting and really important. You have a passion as you mentioned for public service and working within municipalities. And you want to share that passion and knowledge with younger people and mentor them. So I know that we'll have you back to talk about possibilities of internships and mentoring young folks in the community to work within town government. Yes. So real quick, before we jump into that. So there's so many awesome things that we're doing here in the town third process that I want to notify the public about and our viewing community. So it was something that has been in the work most of the year and we were, I was already myself in several other departments in town. We were working so myself, the collector treasurer and IT. We were already working on trying to bring some of our services online and COVID happened. But it allowed us to be able to move forward with those things. So we rolled it out on July 1st. So now you are able to request the vital record so you can request an extra certificate, a birth certificate or marriage certificate online, pay for it online and we can submit it to you, we can send it to you and you can also renew your dog license online. Wow. So that's so convenient, particularly just in time for the new dog park, right? Yes. So you know, we, you know, town hall is still close to the public but we did not want to hinder residents from being able to conduct business, town business. And so this was one of the things, it was something that we were already thinking of doing anyway and we were working towards how we were going to implement it and I was like, well, we really got to do it now because we're close to the public and COVID and people are apprehensive about coming out and there were people who were, we have a drop box on the main street side of town hall, but you are more than welcome to always use. But you know, everyone is comfortable with, you know, doing things, you know, virtual and it's right. You can do so straight from the town clerk, from the town's home page. So if you click on E payments, if you are already set up to pay your taxes and your excise bills with the, with the town, you can do the same thing. We have our own links there and you can choose. And then if you have questions or you're unsure, call us first and then we can walk you through it. So I'm super excited about that. Thank you, Shavita. So you've already made things more efficient here in the town of Amherst. So we have so appreciate that. Yes. And I, I would, I would also like to encourage going back to elections and young people. And I want to just say this really quickly. So I am a strong advocate in this season for voting by mail. And I would like to express this to two communities, to our college students and to our senior community, to our senior population. Those are our two most vulnerable groups. And so I want to urge everyone to exercise that right. We're going to be busy. The town clerk's office is going to be busy regardless. And in the, you know, out of abundance of caution, I would just urge everyone, please exercise your right to vote by mail. Vote by mail. Now the law is in place, everyone. It's a temporary law so it will expire. It's like almost like Cinderella. It's going to expire at 1159 on December 31st, 2020. So exercise the right while you have it. Exercise your right to vote. This is also the 100 year mark for women's suffrage. So women make sure you register to vote. Make sure you exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to vote by mail. Last but not least, if you are well, and I want to especially ask our young people if you're able to, because I know UMass, I know Amherst College has some really strict policies if you're going to be back on campus. The Secretary of State has a push for anyone who wants to be an election worker. We've had our application up online all year. If you feel like you want to participate, please do. Please apply. Take the time to apply. It is a lengthy process to fill out the application, but we can use as much help as we can get and we can use some hard-working, healthy people. And I do. I really want to encourage the young people in town to be involved. You all are, especially like our high school students, you all are out of school for the summer. If you're not working, get involved. You can always call me. I can always use you in some capacity. Everyone has a value and a work and I am. I'm a big proponent on mentoring and training up the next generation. I want someone to be able to take my job. And so that's, and it would be an honor to keep the legacy going and to continue to build on what the great things we're doing here in town. And so that's part of why I decided and opted to apply to be the town clerk and ultimately once I got to position I that is I want to open the door for anyone who's willing. Anyone who's interested or it has wondered and how do I go about that? Because sometimes we wonder about things but we don't know where to begin. Give me a call, give me an email. If you see me at Big Y, if you see me at, if you see me because you will see me at the following places, Big Y, Marshall's and Target. Please, by all means, stop me. For Starbucks. Stop, stop and ask wonderful questions because you do want to to bring young people in. We hope that we'll have you back on soon and talk about other things that are going on with the town government but also the electoral process. It has been a pleasure. Chavina Town Clerk of Amherst Mass and I say that so proudly. Thank you for being with us today and we hope that when folks do see you at all of those places that they say hello and words of welcome to you in this community. It's a great community and we can only make it better by having folks like you within our midst. Thank you so much. It is a pleasure and I'm honest.