 I'm Adrienne Terizzi from the Amherst League of Women Voters, welcoming you to tonight's live Election Night coverage 2018, sponsored by the League and our longtime collaborators here at Amherst Media. The Amherst Chapter is one of 45 in the state and was among the earliest to organize. We'll be celebrating our 80th year of our founding and our mission of bringing nonpartisan, broader education and information to the Amherst community. We extend our deep appreciation to Amherst Media and its staff, without whom tonight would not have been possible, and we thank you for joining us tonight. Now for the next 90 minutes, Stan Rosenberg, former State Senate President and longtime League member will host some very interesting and relevant discussions with our guests on national, statewide and local ballot questions, and the local issues facing our town as we change from select board town meeting to a council forum of government. As soon as the polls close after 8pm, our League runners and tabulators will be reporting the results of Amherst historic very first election for New Town Council, and we'll find out who voters chose as the 13 members to represent us. So stay here on Channel 17, we've got it all covered, I know you'll enjoy the program. Good evening and welcome to our election night coverage here at Amherst Media, sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters. I'm going to give you the lay of the land, we'll be together for roughly an hour and a half, I hope you will stay with us for as much of the coverage as possible, we're going to be focusing on our local elections starting with our nuke, hopefully our new soon to be elected State Representative Mindy Dom, we'll then move on to a conversation with Professor Ray Leraja and Ray is a political science professor at UMass and we're going to be giving you some hints about how to look at and think about the national results because it's going to be a very long night and most of the results on the national level are going to come well after this show is over, but Ray is going to give us some hints about thinking about how to watch for the rest of the evening, many are sitting on the edges of their seats waiting to see the results of our federal elections. And then we're going to hear from our town manager and outgoing select board chair and we'll be talking about the town council and then we'll have a representative from the League of Women Voters who will be here to talk about both the local non-binding referendum questions and also the three binding questions that are on the state ballot and we'll be interrupting as we go through the evening as results come in, we're focused principally on our local elections and by the end of this show we're going to know who our new town council members are and hopefully we'll know the results of the ballot questions as well, but our main focus and we'll go off the air shortly after we have all of the returns for the town council and then we're assuming that many of you will be switching over to network television to follow the rest of the election results at both the state and federal levels and again hopefully Ray Leraja's coaching will help us all think about what we should be watching for in the next few hours to determine what's going to be happening at the national level, but with me now is going to be our first guest and that's Mindy Dom and Mindy is a candidate for state representative and the polls will be closing very shortly and we're in the final half hour of the voting actually a little bit less than a half hour now and since there was no other candidate on the ballot and we didn't hear about a write-in campaign it's very likely that Mindy is going to be the state representative elect before this evening and so we're really grateful that you were willing to take the time to come over and sit with us for a few minutes to reflect on the campaign and as you move forward to preparing to assume office again we don't want to assume anything because until every vote is counted the decision is not made but again it's pretty likely that by the end of this evening you will be the state representative elect so let's take just a minute first and do the quick history because I think that's important so let's go back 50 years 50 years Mindy and in 1968 John Olver a chemistry professor at UMass Amherst was elected to the House of Representatives four years later he said it's up or out and I hope you decide that it won't be up or right out after four years but he recognized at that point that it was up or out and he took on an incumbent Republican state senator John Barris from Goshen and sure enough by a just a very slim margin he was the first Democrat ever to be elected to the state Senate from this Senate district and was an Amherst resident I followed him four years I'm sorry Jim Collins followed him next and Jim served for oh boy probably 12 or 14 maybe 16 years and became chair of the education committee and he went off to become chancellor of the board of higher education and following that experience he practiced law for a while and then he went to the court and he became a distinguished jurist in the juvenile court and he still sits on the court now again just a very distinguished career that he had I followed Jim when John Olver went to Congress I had the opportunity then to move from the House into the Senate I served about five years because the Senate seat opened and and I moved and then I stayed there for a good long time and then came Ellen's story as you know and she followed me in the House and she was in I think 18 years more I think 24 25 years okay you know that more recent history than I very good and then Solomon Goldstein Rose took the seat and decided not to seek re-election in the end and so you are about to we believe become the next state representative and so for 50 years this seat has been in the hands of someone from Amherst and currently the district correct me if I'm wrong is Amherst Pelham and half of Granby yep precinct or precinct one in Granby very good so tell us what the experience was of running for office oh I adored running for office I loved meeting not only people that I knew and benefiting from their expertise but especially meeting a whole lot of new friends and new people and new ideas and new concerns and today I had the opportunity to sort of revisit some of those folks one person in particular I'd like to talk about he's a pharmacist in Granby at the center pharmacy and when I was first collecting signatures in Granby I met him and he was just very generous with his time he talked to me a little bit about reimbursement rates for pharmaceuticals from mass health and really sort of informed me not only as to how his reimbursement worked but also how his local pharmacy works as a real sort of community focus and today I went and said hello to him again and I've gone back there several times and he gave me a flu shot so real win-win for me and so I was able to not only reconnect with him and thank him again but get immunized against some version of the flow and remind me is that Mr. LaLonde yes it is it is Lee LaLonde Lee LaLonde and his father was big in Democratic politics when I started in the house and I stood in front of their store as well gathering signatures and on election night they fed me spaghetti very good so what what was the most exhilarating part of running for state rep you know in some ways it was really we did a lot of house parties we did about 25 27 house parties and in the house parties people really sort of shared their concerns in a way that sometimes you don't get in campaign and they also asked me questions that I would not necessarily get on a street corner and so we were able to have some real conversations which for me was quite exhilarating that and the number of little girls that would come over to me in the campaign and want to shake my hand and thank me for running their mom sometimes would thank me but I didn't really expect little kids to say thank you and that was really sort of momentous for me it's like a real responsibility then well during the primary season I been talking with friends I said this is the year of the woman and sure enough if you look at what happened in this Senate district the likely new senator is going to be the first woman in the history of this seat Joe Comerford from Northampton such a terrific and the first person from Northampton in 100 years since Calvin Coolidge and so that's interesting and then you're going to be joined by Natalie Blay and by help me here there's Dan Kerry from Eastampton and then Lindsay Sabadosa from North Hampton and Susanna Whips is from Athol and Paul Mark from Peru and he touches this district through Greenfield but interestingly so out of the seven seats five are going to be occupied by women I think we I think the valley essentially increased the percentage of women in the state house by about one to two percentage points this year and I had heard somebody say that there's one part some people say that women are riding the wave but really no they're creating the wave that's a nice that's a nice feeling that's terrific that's terrific what are you thinking about in terms of committee assignments that you'd like to pursue higher education is my number one priority for committee assignment you come from Amherst I think it's it's like a no-brainer they see the rep from Amherst as the UMass person you know it's not only because UMass is physically located in the district but a lot of residents are connected to UMass either as employees or a student so I think that is a number one priority I'm thinking about revenue and I'm thinking about substance use and mental health and but the reality is I'll be happy wherever I am in a committee I'll figure it's a new opportunity to learn information but I am hoping that higher ed is one of the three that's great and how does your experience at the survival center fit into your thinking about how you'll be doing your job and what you bring to the job I think the people that I've met in the survival center and their experiences and their challenges is something that I will be bringing to every discussion that I have with folks and that's already happened in talking to people around economic justice issues as well as climate justice issues I sort of bring those experiences with me I was able to speak at the Massachusetts Commission on the status of women hearing that happened in Turner's Falls about two weeks ago and talked about diaper need and I'm hoping that I can bring that into the discussions and legislation and so I think it's going to be a big part I'm a little sad I can't do both jobs at the same time but so I'll have to make sure that I keep those folks you know many people who serve in the legislature much closer to Boston do have a second job but it's very difficult to do even any kind of part time work from Western Mass and especially if you if you hope to both represent your district well and pursue opportunities for leadership in Boston you really have to be absolutely focused on on the job if you think about it you know you're in the car four to six hours every time you go round trip and when I first started it was about four hours now it's closer to five and a half or six hours depending on traffic so the advantage that people closer to the State House have of not having all that travel time is enormous so for Western Mass legislators it's really important to to really focus on the job and see it as a full-time job well I think that when I'm back in the district I'll be spending time at the Survival Center and either volunteering or having some kind of office hours or open hours today during an election day I was able to go and get a delicious lunch at the Amherst Survival Center and that was fun because I was really sort of a day off but I decided to come into the center and you know it was great the Survival Center is a place to get replenished I think and to be reminded about how great our community is and how generous we are to each other so it's a good thing to do well so since there are so many new legislators from this area how are you folks thinking about your work together and and your coordination and and being able to have have a different kind and maybe a more powerful presence it's such a great question because during the campaign I think we all heard from constituents who were concerned with the loss of seniority in the district and how were we going to make up for it and I think all of us are very aware that we need to really focus on our relationships primarily and then go out and so all of us newbies are sort of already meeting with each other already talking with each other already sharing information and then we're also sort of being embraced by the existing members of the delegation so we're having meetings with those folks too including Reptisher Farley Buvier from the Berkshires who came and took all the women out for brunch and so there was also this subgroup of women legislators and I think we're all talking not only about our priorities and our wishes for committee assignments but also how we can work together and I have to say I also think state senator Joe Cumberford is really playing a role and also not only meeting with the state reps but also talking about how we can work together across houses so I think that it'll be all right I mean you can't make up for the time in terms of when people retire but I think the partnerships and the relationships are going to be very very strong great you have a final word of inspiration that you want to share with our folks who are watching us this evening as you prepare to head off to to celebration tonight keep all of your public officials accountable and make sure we are transparent and that we provide you with opportunities to influence us great well thank you for spending some time with us this evening I'm I'm sure you are out all day holding signs shaking hands and encouraging people to vote and we're going to look forward to your excellent representation thank you and I'm sure Amherst media will hope to see you in their studies many miss studios many many times maybe I'll be interviewed by you on all those opportunities I never know thank you for being with us this evening thanks Stan great thank you and so now to the changing set here and we're going to have Ray Leraja join us but first I think they're going to be a few messages that are going to be shared with you by Amherst media tonight's program is sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters a voice for citizens and a force for change for 80 years in Amherst the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens and government works to increase understanding of major public policy and influences public policy through education and advocacy membership is open to all ages 16 years and older to learn more please visit our website at www.lwvamherst.org Amherst media's capital campaign is offering individuals families and organizations an opportunity to be a permanent fixture on our brick wall supporters which will be located in the reception area of our new facility your custom brick and have your name your family organization or up to three lines of text and larger sizes are available display your support for the ideals and service Amherst media has provided for over 40 years for information options and pricing go to Amherst media.org slash bricks thank the ability of the Senate and blah blah blah we are now on live and we have Ray Lerazer professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Ray is going to help us think a little bit about how to watch the shows that you'll be turning into later to see what's happening at the national level we hope we will stay with us until we have a clear picture of what's happening with our town council but we know the evening is going to be a long one because polls close some parts of the country at 11 o'clock eastern standard time although it's it's reasonable hour where they are so Ray tell us what we should be looking for help us understand what's going on here with the US Senate what's going on with the Congress I'm sorry the US House of Representatives they're both the Congress and what you would be looking for tonight what are the what are the states which will give us some indication of what's trending yeah well it is going to be a long night there's a lot to go on the as your viewers probably know the Senate and House are still controlled by the Republicans and it's going to be a difficult task for the Democrats to take back the Senate precisely because they're defending so many seats throughout the country so roughly how many are they defending versus how many the Republicans are defending they're defending about 18 or so 20 or so in tough races and our 10 races are particularly tough but the Republicans are not defending many at all and that's just the luck of the draw yeah as we go because a third of the seats come up every exactly every two years and this time it's more Democratic seats that are up for grabs exactly and Republican in another election it would be more so in 2020 exactly the Republicans are going to be in the reverse situation the Democrats are going to be able to be more aggressive but that said they still have a chance yeah if we if they start running the table and some of these seats I'll be talking about okay in the house we see a different picture the Democrats need to pick up 23 seats and they're doing it in places where they we see a switch in voters these are the suburbs and we see many voters in those suburbs deciding they don't want to vote for Trump and his candidates and so we might see a lot of flips in those areas that's the one I'd be looking at right now okay and do you have a guess of how many seats based on your analysis are likely to be picked up by the Democrats if there is a Democratic trend right I do see they need 23 and I think it's fairly likely they'll do that most pollsters say between five and six chance six and seven chance those are pretty good odds although I know some viewers we said that back during the 2016 election about the Trump race and there's always the odds that this can't happen most respected pollsters and my own analysis I think the Democrats will pick up between 30 and possibly 40 seats given the momentum so I asked that same question of two other local political observers and I'm not going to mention their names because if they're wrong I don't want them to be embarrassed and if they're right they're going to kill me because I didn't use their names but one of them said 35 and the other said 37 yeah so you're all three of you are in the same same ballpark same same ballpark so what happens well so tell us about which states we should be watching this evening as we're tuning in on the major networks as to trying to figure out if there is a trend in the Democratic direction and remember we're on a show for the League of Women voters which is nonpartisan so we are speaking in theory here and yes a lot of the pundits have have told us that this flip is entirely possible yeah but now which states should we be watching for the trend right well I want to just point out to your viewers that this election go 50 vote votes towards the Democrats and the Democrats could actually not take back the house so there's probabilities across the board that said there are few races three in particular be looking at early on in the East Coast one is the Virginia 7th and this election I want to also point out that one of the big differences of election is there's a huge surge in women candidates in Congress and I point that out not just for historical reasons but the voters are going to change this election are going to be women those are the most important voters especially educated women mostly in the suburbs they are very engaged in the selection and and the Virginia 7th is one air we might see this happen this is a district just outside of Richmond it's a unique district it was a district that Eric Cantor who was the former leader of majority leader of the House lost in an unprecedented race to this fellow named David Bratt a tea party candidate he's still there and now we have a candidate her name is Abigail Spanberger and she is a former CIA operative she's worked in government service she's a first-time candidate and her odds look really good and not only because she's a good candidate but she has huge enthusiasm that district so I would I would be looking there's a nice setup between a new women candidate and a tea party candidate if we see the Democrats take back that is good for the Democrats another race I'd be looking at is Kentucky 6th district another tea party candidate another woman first-time candidate here we have Andy Barr who's the sitting incumbent versus a Marine fighter pilot whose name is Amy McGrath this district was carried by 14 points by Trump so it's a tough district but if she takes that district that is a very good sign for the Democrats in Kentucky that is so much in favor of Trump in the last election and you see a pattern here these are women some of who've worked in in government who have this kind of profile of being tough-minded prosecutors CIA operatives Marine pilots and these are the types of candidates in some of these districts that the Democrats have put up against very conservative candidates one more area I'd look at in is the Georgia 6th and again from some of your viewers might know this district because it is a special election with this fellow named John Ossoff who lost to Karen Handel in the special election again it's a district that went big for Trump conservative district but it's a suburb and a lot of women in this district are both engaged and enraged and it's gonna be interesting to see how that plays out I'll be looking at that district as well you mentioned women and their influence in this election what about the young people the millennials they were energized by Parkland by the pack Parkland massacre in Florida and from what we're hearing on the news at least there's a significant turnout of young people 18 year olds 20 year olds who normally don't vote a lot of young people don't vote until their mid 20s what are you thinking what are you thinking about that I think there's a good possibility they'll come out political scientists like myself are skeptical sometimes we'd love to see more youth turnout but we're always skeptical because the midterms they just disappear now for the Democrats youth are part of that Obama coalition if they turn out they are really going to do well in some of these districts their signs that they're voting early there's been a lot of mobilization efforts the other part of the Obama coalition is the minority voters and that's going to be a test to see if they're again not always especially Latinos not always present in midterms but to the degree that that coalition gets put together in this election there seems to be some enthusiasm you're going to see a this could be a big blue wave and what about better work yeah yes is he going to is he gonna pull that one out 38 let me think about this 3.8 million votes cast prior to election day through early voting it's it's frankly amazing they've had more early voting than they've had in any type of voting in the state of Texas that's a sign that there's enthusiasm up and down the board now some of those voters would have voted before but I also think it's a it's it's a mark of very high turnout and I don't know how the ballots break down in terms of Democrats for problems going in or work is the beneficiary of tremendous enthusiasm among progressives and also a souring on Ted Cruz their their current senator but he has a very very tough road to hoe I think he has a possibility because odds are not great simply because of the voting patterns in that state still very conservative state Latinos are a large portion and growing portion again they don't have high turnout especially in midterms he speaks Spanish he connects with them well but it's going to be difficult and it's not clear that they've been reached I mean it's a it's a huge state and it's not clear to me that they've been reached on Spanish television and other forms like that but it could happen for publicans are betting on it though but early voting is becoming a major national tool for increasing turnout we did that we've passed that law to elections ago this is the second election excuse me the second election that we're using early voting in Massachusetts and the trend of the number of people came last time early voting versus this time it's a huge increase people like early voting it'll be interesting to hear from political scientists what they think the impact of early voting is going to be on increasing voter participation over time one more subject because I think we're going to be running out of time for the segment in a minute so if the U.S. House of Representatives flips Democratic control what does it mean for this district especially because we have Mr. McGovern our own senator our own representative U.S. representative who represents Amherst and the next district over is Richie Neal who represents another big part of western Massachusetts what's it going to mean for Massachusetts delegation if it flips Democratic and what's it going to mean for us here in western Massachusetts with those two very powerful people yeah this port ends very well for Massachusetts the state always punches above its weight because it has politicians who are seasoned who've been there a long time were close to the leadership and just frankly good policymakers and we have that in I think in McGovern and in Richie Neal so they are both going to be taking over as majority leaders of very powerful Richard Neal will be taking over as a very powerful leader of ways and means and McGovern is highly ranked as well so that is going to mean more power and influence for the voters of western Massachusetts so a victory for the Democrats is is good news for this part of the state very good well I've just been given the signal that we actually have a little more time so I'd like to raise a couple of other subjects with you I'd like to talk a little bit about voter suppression so we're hearing lots of reports we're hearing reports on both ends we're hearing reports about voter suppression we're also hearing reports about intervention and interference by foreign powers in our election system so as a political scientist I'd really like to hear your thoughts a little bit about these two issues and whether you think that they're being overblown and whether there is there are protections that we could put in place both to protect people's right to vote and with regard to voter suppression yes I don't think they're being overblown these are serious issues and on the case of voter suppression we should be making it easier political scientists across the board think we should be making it easier for voters to vote there was a commission that the president set up for investigating voter fraud led coincidentally by the person who's running for governor of Kansas and that commission actually disbanded because there was disagreement there was no evidence of voter fraud I cannot think of a single political science research prod that says that's a big problem the problem however is the difficulties we've erected to let voters vote and one example in the state of Georgia it's unbelievable to me that this is happening the current candidate for governor is also the secretary of state and he's making it difficult by saying we're not gonna we're taking voters off the rolls who don't perfectly match their name to their voter file yeah I heard if the period was missing after your middle initial you were disqualified from voting right how absurd is that yeah so it is absurd and and I think there are many groups on the ground that are gonna be challenging any of this when voters show up at the polls so there's a lot of volunteer legal advisors there and there are other states where it's been hard for people who have been former felons to get re-registered to vote there's been instances even long lines as a form of poll tax because you wait on line three four five hours that's costing you time at your job child care things like that we need to do a much better job of letting people get to the polls and that's why early voting is good it's making it more convenient for people to get the polls and that's why presumably so many people are doing it because they can squeeze it in at a time when they actually have some time and don't have to take it away from something else that they were focused on what about the the concerns that are being raised about interference we hear about what happened allegedly in relation to the election last time with the Russians interfering people are now talking about China how do you think those are overblown do you think those are being exaggerate well I mean I don't say there are these these are serious incidents because we want to have integrity of our elections not just in our voting booth but the messages voters get and now we have foreign people involved in that a lot of this problem comes with social media social media is very good because it brings people into the process informs them but it also becomes a tool for people who want to abuse it and do things to undermine our democracy so Facebook is now I hear very involved in trying to do this it's a very big task to weed out this it's not as simple as just taking an algorithm and saying okay we'll keep out those people this is something that secretaries of state have to be vigilant about Congress should be investigating this because our elections are very close and they could be thrown off by a few votes here and there so I would take it seriously we don't want money coming into our elections from foreign entities we certainly don't want them through this new social media influencing our elections that's the integrity of our democratic process and I know we didn't talk about this before the show but do you have any observations with regard to how the trends around the congressional races might affect the gubernatorial elections because gubernatorial elections are critical for redistricting redistricting of course determines the districts in which members of Congress are going to run so there's this intersection between those two if we see a trend on the democratic side for the US House are we likely to see some change in governor's offices that are going to be significant or are we to to to amorphous at the moment to figure out I think the top of the they meet the governor's office in most states gets involved in the redistricting process we're coming up to 2020 when we do the redistricting the Republicans were able to gerrymander many of these districts in 2010 because they took control of legislatures in many governor's offices so the Democrats have a chance to win back some state legislative seats capture a few houses not I don't think it's gonna be as big as what the Republicans in 2010 and some governor seats and by boosting turnout they're also gonna have some some spillover effects on some of these congressional races as well I'll point out one race that's particularly important to the US Senate the governor who's running in Florida this guy named Gillum he's boosting turnout significantly among African-Americans that's good news for the Senate candidate who was not doing so well Bill Nelson he's incumbent and so that bodes well for the people in that state if they're Democrats do you have any intel or any observations about the governor's race in Georgia which is also a really that's a nail biter that is a big nail secretary of state who actually governs the elections you have an African-American American woman who may be the first African-American woman to be governor in any state and let alone Georgia and we heard this morning that the the voting machines they didn't have the cords to plug them in to run them the electronic machines for voting which is going to affect the overall vote and the Secretary of State who's a candidate for governor was the guy the chief elections officer for the state yeah I say this as a nonpartisan we really should make sure our voting machinery works as well as possible and some in a situation like that you recuse yourself from being Secretary of State you give it to your deputy and you run for the other office there's too much conflict of interest I also heard there were accusations from this Secretary of State is running for governor that there's been hacking by the some Democratic supporters of the of the voting roles and which turn out to be completely false and those types of things throw voters off they they undermines the legitimacy of the system it angers voters these things should be happening our electoral system and I say this completely as some as not as a partisan right because it can happen in either direction and it does but but there's no accountability in the system because those false claims get proven too late and even when they're proven there's no consequence exactly well Ray thank you very much for being here do you have a final word or a final observation you'd like to share before our time is up well it's going to be as I said it's going to be a long a night and some people are seeing this as a you know a referendum on the president that's not all it is although a lot of people are motivated by that there are some other issues out there like health care but this does set the table for 2020 coming down the road it's not going to predict what's going to happen but it does set the table for how the parties behave in the aftermath great well I thank you for being here and I hope you'll be able to hang around a little while so that if you have some updates that you could share with the viewers later in the show that we could bring you back up and if not just hand me some pieces of paper as you as you head out the door sounds good your words of wisdom thank you so much thanks for having me tonight's program is sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters a voice for citizens and a force for change for 80 years in Amherst the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government works to increase understanding of major public policy and influences public policy through education and advocacy membership is open to all ages 16 years and older to learn more please visit our website at www.lwvamherst.org Amherst Media's capital campaign is offering individuals families and organizations an opportunity to be a permanent fixture on our brick wall of supporters which will be located in the reception area of our new facility your custom brick and have your name your family organization or up to three lines of text and larger sizes are available display your support for the ideals and service Amherst Media has provided for over 40 years for information options and pricing go to Amherst Media dot org slash bricks thank you on segment three of our coverage for election night here at Amherst Media's media sponsored by the League of Women Voters and our guests in this segment are our town manager Paul welcome thank you and our outgoing chair of the select board Doug welcome thank you so thank you both for coming in this evening and so we are going through a really big transition here in town and the polls are just closing now and so it's going to be a while before we find out what the results of the election are going to be but we want to talk a little bit about the past and a little bit about the future and transitions and change can often be difficult and as a resident of the community I know that for more than 30 years probably approaching 40 years people have been talking about moving away from representative town government of course most of the communities around us have open town meeting and we moved away from that many years ago to representative town meeting only one other community in Hampshire County as I recall shares that model and that was is South Hadley otherwise it's open town meeting in Northampton of course has a mayor and a city council and so if I recall correctly was four tries before a charter was approved by the voters to change our form of government and to move away from the representative town meeting to a town council and the let me say remind me here the vote was somewhere around 54 or 55 percent of the vote 57 57 percent okay so you know for those of us who run for office if you get 54 55 percent of the vote you consider it a serious result so you even top that in town here by a 57 percent vote but the community was quite divided through that whole debate and now we have to move to to the new chapter so can you talk a little bit Doug about your experience and how you're thinking and experiencing sort of shutting down closing down the old form of government and and participating in helping the community move constructively to the next chapter one of the things that I I actually said it at a I think a retreat we had but it was probably a month or so after the election it sort of dawned on me that I would be the last person ever elected to the select board in Amherst and and given that my colleagues have supported me as remaining chair I'll be the last chairperson of the select board Amherst which is a sort of odd thing to have in some ways it sort of speaks to the dislocation that is related to this change in form of government but I think what we've tried to do is a select board in the intervening months since the election in March is to to try to ease this transition and and keep the town moving forward and not have a long gap where things weren't functioning or being done so where we've been you know focused on continuing and finishing some things that we had been working on before that time both in things that came to town meeting in the spring and also through our actions over the summer in this fall even as as recently as a meeting or two ago we had you know presentations on the North Common and potential changes to that area and we had a presentation on on some potential plans for downtown recreation changes and so we're trying to keep those things with a little momentum and a little inertia to move forward and and in the public eyes the public as a whole is still having conversations about that understanding those things are moving along and so if there's not a drop-off and a long gap and then suddenly things arise with people feeling as though they hadn't had an opportunity to participate so we've been trying to do that that kind of work to kind of keep things moving as as we move into the to the new form of government it is I think you know Paul has the the difficulty of going from a sort of known to an unknown and and his entire time he's had the same five people on select boards what's been a really steady group that's been with him over that time and I have to say you know my colleagues are phenomenal select board members and I've been blessed to be on a select board with such a great group of folks but it's going to be a really different experience with a larger number of people that he's working with and and communicating with and and operating with and and the roles and responsibilities are a little different some things are kind of the same some things aren't so I think it's a it's gonna be real challenge to find the right sort of set of precedents to set an arc of work to go through to to be functional and effective right away so what do you see on the horizon as you as we transition with regard to some of these ongoing major issues and thinking about things like let's just take economic development in the community so people have said for many years that we want a high quality of life in town that requires substantial revenue we have no real industrial base we have a substantial amount of property in tax exempt status either because of the state or educational institutions that are not for not for profit how do you see this new form of government having an opportunity here that may be a little different if if at all from how a select board in the town meeting we're able to deal with a subject such as economic development I think one of the critical pieces in that is is how we do our zoning and how we we've had a number of different zoning proposals over the last several years to change and modify zoning to allow for infill development inclusionary zoning for for affordable housing lots of different kinds of proposals have come forward to varying levels of success within town meeting you know one can hope that with a smaller group they'll be able to dig in a little deeper on some of those issues and and grapple with them in a in a very detailed way that's difficult for a large group like town meeting to do well that's not to diminish the capability in the the dedication of people in town meeting but it's just it's hard to to do those things are very complex there's a lot of subtly to it they're not clear answers about how to go about it but it is essential like you said to have the sort of high quality of life the number of services we want the kind of interesting things we want to have going on in our community there needs to be you know the revenue sources to support that state aid has been very flat over the last probably ten years or more so we're really on our own in the tool we have as property tax which is a to my mind a somewhat poor tool but it is the tool we have and so we have to have ways to generate property tax and generate more property tax and you know it's unlikely you know Amazon's not going to show up and and set up you know in some corner of town and suddenly pump a bunch of tax dollars into us so we've got to do some other things that are more subtle more nuanced and yet still retain the character I think that's why the nuance is required if we you know we can take different approaches we could change a bunch of zoning and invite a bunch of you know large industrial groups in and it would be a much different town if we did that and so when you talk about looking at zoning as one of the tools so right now if I recall correctly we have three professional research park zones areas relatively small amount of of land and so those could be developed and and but that may not have that may not be enough land mass to produce the kind of result that you might need so when you talk about zoning is that one of the things that could be considered which is identifying other prop parts of the town where additional land would be made available for certain types of income generating property right I think so you know we're not going to become you know given the retail center that is nearby and Hadley primarily we're not likely to attract a lot of retail into Amherst in a significant way it's just too convenient and too close and it's already established next door so that's not going to be where we're going to get the economic development in our town there'll be some and we should pursue those that we can but there are other things we have two colleges and university we have a research university I think the potentials are there to harness that and in a productive way that can be beneficial to us with startups and innovative less impactful as far as land use and and types of use that could be very very beneficial to us and add a lot of value to the town in subtle ways but I think absolutely you know professional research parks other things like that and and other ways to to encourage those types of spin-off or or startup type businesses from from the research that goes on in and around our community and be welcoming to others that want to come from other places is not that it has to come necessarily from the university or the colleges but if you have an environment that's you know you get a certain self-fulfilling prophecy in a way it's like once you kind of create this the environment for it then it creates a self-sustaining aspect to it well there's nothing wrong with that MIT if we're as a great example has basically used the research of faculty and graduate students to generate enormous economic impact not only for the university but for that area of the state and we hear about it over and over and over again and you think about what's going on in Kenmore Square now so there are opportunities and those are very green facilities producing new knowledge and tech transfer into the economy which is improving people's lives and improves the Massachusetts economy people get to work it's it's a really rich opportunity and the university is finally reaching a point in its development where it's really poised to do dramatically better in that in that realm if there's the right cooperation between the university and the town which perhaps Paul you might want to respond to that how do you see the change in the town government affecting our town-gown relations and our work together to continue to be both good neighbors and good partners so I think the council will provide more continuity and more clarity for our relationships with the colleges and the university I think just to segue a little bit that you know the town has been blessed to have a select board chair chair Doug Slaughter is being so articulate but all the members of the select board are really committed smart they can they can argue with each other but they generally are in have the best interests of the town at heart so the town has been really fortunate to have such great leadership I think that we hope that the council will continue that tradition I think that if the council does have the same kind of quality of membership that which when we have had a very spirited debate during the election which I was really happy about that people were testing their ideas in the general public and the voters are had their say today and and for elections are for that's what they're for and it's really important for the town to come to a consensus on this and it'll be it won't be just one vote up or down it'll be a conversation that happens among people that hopefully represent the entire community and I think that that will be very healthy for the for the town I think you're right about the university being a it's a giant gigantic economic engine and we if we can pull off some of we don't we don't need everything that they generate but we want our share of it and I think the university knows that that's in our interests and in the university's interest as well to leverage some of the incredible research that they're doing and to create some jobs I think one of our economic advantages here is that people are looking for the the the advantage of living in a community like Amherst you know people if you live in Somerville or Cambridge and you're working in Kendall Square that's one thing and there's a lot of vitality there but at some point you want quality of life and I think that's where we excel and that's why a lot of people choose to live in Amherst and a lot of people who have gone to school here you know are always anxious to move back which is what I did and I think that there's a lot of people out there who will we can benefit from their participation in our economy in our community and that quality of life that we're discussing depends on a lot of governmental services a lot of facilities etc so we have a capital plan which is fairly expansive at this point how do you see and either of you could respond to this this may be more appropriate for you because it's more political than than otherwise how do we how do we find our way forward with these needs under the current circumstances well I'll start Paul you can jump in at any time but you know we've identified you know sort of four large capital projects in the last few years we've talked about a fire station for over 50 years in the community there's plenty of folks that that have have been urgently seeking that need just to get better coverage I mean separate from it's not as much a staffing issue with that as far as that's concerned but it's more about being able to respond appropriately of a long skinny town and so having things in the middle of town in the north end of town if you live in the southern end of town it's it's the response times for for EMS services which is more often what happens we don't have a lot of fires these days is difficult in in the current circumstances it's a longer wait time you know the the library's been participating in the in the grant process with the state you know our elementary schools are showing their age and and they are at a point where you know sort of repairing them as is is difficult to do it's very expensive to do is it smarter to to move in a new direction for both the libraries and for the schools I think we're in a place where we need support from the state we paid we've all paid our taxes to the state and it goes into those pools of money that get used by other communities you know we need to step up and and take advantage of that of our money and then of course you have the see articulating the force of DPW or DPW which is scattered quite frankly right now I mean it's in a building that's over a hundred years old for the large part there are other pieces of it around town that doesn't service well that's a that's a branch of our emergency services and we're not doing our best by them and by our citizens quite frankly and so in addition to that we have all the other things we have tremendous needs in our roadways we have tremendous needs in our recreation facilities and so all of those things you know they didn't suddenly appear we've we've made other choices over the years to not spend money on capital and spend more money on on operating expenses and and so you know those things are kind of coming home and so we're gonna have to make some very difficult choices about what goes first how we choose to pay for it how comfortable or uncomfortable we are with potentially making different choices about operating in order to support those capital projects those are a very serious set of questions that the council is gonna have to deal with pretty soon because some things are as the as the charter likes to say not admitting of delay in other words we can't wait any longer we've held off a long time and we really do need to do those so as you take those four projects and you put them in two buckets one bucket is we're on our own because there's no state grants and the other bucket is their state grants right so the schools would be the biggest price tag yes and there's matching money there the libraries the second biggest price tag or is the fire station it's they're similar size but there's money for the library there's no money for the fire station or for the DPW so what's the cost of the DPW and the fire station together so we haven't haven't nailed down the exact cost yet and that's one of the challenges probably about forty million dollars for the two yeah and what's the cost on the other side for the school and the library well it depends what we're talking about we're talking about two schools or one school and things so the last school was in 34 million dollar range okay so for us it's 68 total right so yeah but 34 from the town right and what about the library about 16 million 16 yeah so you got about 90 million dollars worth of capital we're close to a hundred million right close to a hundred million okay time to value of money so by the time they're designed and constructed okay so that's a hundred million paid for over 40 years so it's two and a half million a year plus interest so the good news is that sounds really daunting to everybody well but what is what is the value of that in relation to the total budget now or right so the good news so the good news is we're in a good position for it because our debt that our past debt is falling off so we have debt capacity to take it on we've been squirreling money away and putting money in the bank so we have some reserves and we've also been elbowing room out in our in our capital in our budget to be able to take on more debt so we're in a good position what has to happen is the priority prioritization of the projects we need to know and the voters have to agree that which one goes first and the council is going to have a big say in how we want to stage these things if we want to do them at all and there has to be a plan and there has to be a understanding and that's our that's my mission and to present present that to the council early in 2019 so I think once we get that there will people will have a better grip on it I think if people we have not built a new building in this town in a generation and typically in a town you want to build a new every generation should build leave something for the next generation there should be so we haven't built anything since the police station so we're behind and so we're we're sort of paying the cost of that now as we see the problems we're having with our schools and with their deep the condition of the DPW and the fire so it's time it's just a matter of how how we want to roll it out and the kind of support we can get from the state so in these few minutes we've and we're almost finished with this segment but to summarize we basically have a major capital program we have economic development as an opportunity which provides revenue which then helps us with the capital program and so those three things together are going to be some of the challenges that this new town council is going to face in its very earliest days but first they have to get organized yes and before they get organized we have to celebrate the success of our select outgoing select board and our incoming town council which is going to take place on December 2nd at 1 o'clock at the Amherst Pellum Regional High School everyone is invited it's gonna be a real celebration they'll be followed by a reception and the cafeteria it's looking to be a really fun event so I hope everybody will participate so everybody in town is invited yes and we're looking forward to seeing so many people there but they'd be standing room only yes and everybody will have a wonderful time celebrating our transition to the next chapter in our community's life and history so thank you both for coming in I'm told that we're out of time for this segment on the other hand if you're not in a rush you can hang around and you might come back up again and we could talk some more on the other hand you may be in a rush and so thank you very much for spending some time with us this evening and Doug thank you very much for your service and all good luck to you you have a very important job helping to navigate with the town council the transformation of our town government to our new future well said thank you thank you tonight's program is sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters a voice for citizens and a force for change for 80 years in Amherst the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government works to increase understanding of major public policy and influences public policy through education and advocacy membership is open to all ages 16 years and older to learn more please visit our website at www.lwvamherst.org Amherst media's capital campaign is offering individuals families and organizations an opportunity to be a permanent fixture on our brick wall of supporters which will be located in the reception area of our new facility your custom brick and have your name your family organization or up to three lines of text and larger sizes are available display your support for the ideals and service Amherst media has provided for over 40 years for information options and pricing go to Amherst media org slash bricks thank you results for the town council election and in just a moment it's going to flash up on the screen so that I can read it to you and you can see it at home in district three there were four candidates George Ryan at 159 votes Dorothy Pam 118 votes John Page 131 and Stephen Braun at 56 so the district counselors from district three are going to be Dorothy Pam and I'm sorry that flipped off these aren't official but that flipped off a little too fast so leave it up a little bit longer on the next one but we do have our our winners in that district and now we're going to have district four and the top vote getter was Evan Ross and the second is Stephen Schreiber so those are the two district four counselors and you can see the results Jacqueline came in at 226 and David at 132 so we now have and we so we now have the tentative results of district four these are not final official results but these are what's being reported to Amherst media could we go back to that other district again please and pop that up on the screen again I know that was unexpected okay so we have George Ryan in district three and we have Dorothy Pam excuse me we have John Page at 131 so it's John Page and George Ryan are the unofficial results for district three let's go back to district four one more time it was district four correct I know I'm making us a little more complicated for the folks in the control room okay again district four is the top two vote getters in the unofficial result are Evan Ross and Stephen Schreiber and I would point out that these four candidates again unofficial were four of the 13 candidates endorsed by Amherst forward which was a local community organization that became very very active in the contests for our town council seats we now have district five again not official results and the top vote getter is Shalini Balmille I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly I'm sorry she's the second highest and Darcy Dumont was the top vote getter followed by Samuel and Paul so district five unofficial results Darcy and Shalini okay and Shalini was also endorsed by Amherst forward as far as I recall Darcy Dumont was not and now we have some results on counselor at large and we're gonna put that up on the screen drum roll please takes a moment in the control booth to make this work so okay the top voted getter was Mandy Joe Hanneke and the second was Alyssa Brewer and Andy Steinberg Andrew Steinberg was the third highest vote getter you'll recall that Alyssa and Andy are current select people who are cycling off that board but have now been unofficial results if they hold they will have been elected to the town council along with Mandy Joe Hanneke and Mandy Joe Hanneke was the vice chair of the Charter Commission and again all three of those individuals were endorsed by Amherst forward and again they endorsed 13 they actually I believe endorsed 14 candidates and one chose to have his name withdrawn from the endorsement list so he was either number 14 or 13 I don't remember which but in any event so far the Amherst forward candidates are doing extremely well and are heading toward a majority on the town council if these results hold up and now I'm told we're going to take a break tonight's program is sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters a voice for citizens and a force for change for 80 years in Amherst the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government works to increase understanding of major public policy and influences public policy through education and advocacy membership is open to all ages 16 years and older to learn more please visit our website at www.lwvamherst.org Amherst media's capital campaign is offering individuals families and organizations an opportunity to be a permanent fixture on our brick wall of supporters which will be located in the reception area of our new facility your custom brick can have your name your family organization or up to three lines of text and larger sizes are available display your support for the ideals and service Amherst media has provided for over 40 years for information options and pricing go to Amherst media dot org slash bricks thank you welcome back to election night coverage here sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Amherst and we're at the studios of Amherst media and political science professor Ray Leraja has come back on to the set because he has something to share I have a few things to share I just want to warn the viewers it's it's going to be a long night you have time to watch reruns of Game of Thrones at this point but I will report one historic thing Iana Presley is the first African-American woman to be officially she's going to win the race first African-American woman to represent all of New England actually in the US Congress and she's from the Boston area and she will be replacing Mr. Capuano who had been a long-serving congressman from Somerville exactly so that's one race that wasn't in contention that the Democrats are going to win that in some other races I've been looking at there's one race in Virginia where it was held by a Republican candidate Barbara Comstock and that is definitively gone to a new candidate Wexton it wasn't the race I was looking at so closely because the trends showed she was going to win but this is an example of how the suburban areas of much of the country are particularly around the DC are moving in the Democratic column the other races I mentioned earlier the Kentucky 6th race that had this fellow by the name of bar versus a Amy McGrath the Marine fighter pilot it's too close to call still he's actually up by about two and a half percentage points with more than 80 almost 85% reporting so that's going to go down to the wire with the Republican leading in the Virginia 7th David Brad is leading by about one point with about 85% reporting of all I'll say this that it's mostly the rural counties that are reported in that district the area of Richmond closer there is more of a Democratic so that race could still flip and and is that an incumbent who would be unseated or that would be an incumbent David Brad this was the story I told earlier about him a tea party candidate unseating the majority leader of the Republican Party and now he's facing off against a CIA operative Democratic first-time candidate so that's that was one of the races I'm looking still not all in still more to go I report us in the Ohio Senate which was in play remember Ohio went for Trump big time it's usually a bell with a state but charade Brown the Democratic incumbent looks like he's going to win fairly easily in that race so but the most of the Senate seats are still not I'm not able to to report those out at this time very good so maybe in the next 30 minutes or so we might find some more intel there could be very good well thanks for coming back on stage to report what you've heard and where we'll stand by and see if there's more results before the show ends sounds good great thank you and I think we're going to break for a promo and but no first we have some more results tonight's program is sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters a voice for citizens and a force for change for 80 years in Amherst the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government works to increase understanding of major public policy and influences public policy through education and advocacy membership is open to all ages 16 years and older to learn more please visit our website at www.lwvamherst.org Amherst Media's capital campaign is offering individuals families and organizations an opportunity to be a permanent fixture on our brick wall of supporters which will be located in the reception area of our new facility your custom brick and have your name your family organization or up to three lines of text and larger sizes are available display your support for the ideals and service Amherst Media has provided for over 40 years for information options and pricing go to Amherst media.org slash bricks thank you well welcome back we just heard a little bit of news from Ray Leraja the political science professor at UMass who's watching the federal races and we are now back to considering local matters and for those of you who have been following and watching the results that I announced earlier are still very unofficial they're not the official results from town hall but these are reports that have come into the station from people who are collecting votes around town and so we will interrupt as additional results come in but please remember that they are unofficial results until they are declared by the town clerk to be the official results and hopefully we'll know those before we wind up this evening and so now we have Adrian Terizzi from the Amherst League of Women Voters joining us and we're going to talk about ballot questions and so I think first let's talk about the two local battle questions that the voters in Amherst had a chance to weigh in on and both of them we should remind the voters and those watching were non binding questions they were put on the ballot by local people to gather a sense of the public's opinion here in Amherst based on those who showed up at the polls and voted so why don't you tell us what those two questions are and what the league's position was and why the league took a position on those and what convinced them to support or not. So let me back up a minute because of the five ballot questions the two that you mentioned are the local the local ones and so the local ones that you want to start with Stan state-wide ballot questions are in the province of the League of Women Voters so the state league doesn't have a specific statement on it a position on it but based on the league's state position the Amherst League indeed was able to support the local non binding questions. Okay so very good so these are positions not of the state league but of the local league and it's based on the state league's general position and attitude about these two subjects absolutely very good so why don't you tell us what those two questions were. So question four was a single payer and it wasn't only Amherst but this ballot question on single payer non binding as you mentioned also included six Western mass districts and so we were among several of them that got together and were able to support single payer we've long time League has long time supported single payer we've been at your office asking you many times for your support over the years so Hampshire one two and three in the first Franklin and the second Berkshire all had single payer you know the league has a very strong single payer healthcare group and committee and now we've come together as a hub a regional hub to work on it which is why the single payer so let me tell you about question five I don't know how much time we have it's also local non binding minutes okay this one is very close to my heart because it's on ranked choice voting and it is an Amherst area non binding ballot question we have a plurality as you well know electoral system and ranked choice voting is getting more and more press it's been in the times the globe so what it is is it's moving from the the plurality system where you mark one candidate to a system whereby we're going to rank our candidates by preference so it seems like a fair system and the state league has had a position on this it was called instant runoff voting in 2005 but that has recently been updated now again because the state league does not come into the local area to say you what we can do it was the league of Amherst that supported this great and talk for a minute about how rank choice voting fits into the charter debate well thank you for asking because of the the charter commission within the the charter itself states that within six months the town council will be putting together a group to indeed put forth ranked choice voting for the town and when they put it forward will it be before the town council to vote and make the decision or will it go to the voters by some form of referendum I'm not quite certain about that we'll see if we can find figure that out before the evening if not we will we'll make sure that that comes up again at another time here in some form or another at one of our of our future shows sure there'll be other shows glad to ask that we're gonna look into that yeah I can envision both I mean it's a legislative body therefore they could make the rule the law the as well as the policy itself with the policy itself and but they could also go to the voters and the question is whether the charter requires them to go to the voters or not or whether they could decide to vote on it and send it to the voters for ratification and be interesting to find that out very good so let's go to the state well we're lucky to live in this state aren't we stand because massachusetts is one of 16 states that has the the types of ballots that we're allowed to put forth and we've got all three types with the state ballots so we'll start with the most contentious one okay now if if since you put that out there why don't you describe the three types so that our voter our viewers understand what you mean by the three types okay I wish I had a little sign here because I would say use an example for instance quite about question one was on the patient nurse limits and that is an example of making a and it is supported by the state league I wanted to get that in and that is a good example of making a an initiative for a law all right and ballot question to which was to limit corporate spending that is a good example of constitutional amendment and the third type of initiative petition is the ballot question three about question three is the chair of the one on transgender anti-discrimination and that ballot question there was a law as you well know in 2016 that protected the rights of of people of of every gender and and the the repeal is what's happening in question three so it's a but so having described those three types we're gonna interrupt for just a minute and go to some more results and then we'll come back to this discussion about the ballot questions so on the screen we now have district one and there are four candidates and the top vote getter was Sarah Schwartz Swartz excuse me not shsw Swartz Sarah Swartz and the second highest vote getter was Kathy Shane Shane and followed by Sharon and Nicola and so Kathy okay and very good so do we have another one here we go district three we had that one before and the top vote getters there were did we lose here okay district three so wait a second now there's so Dorothy Pam is now the top vote getter and George Ryan the last time this was up before us we had John Page but it's Dorothy Pam and George Ryan okay and again folks these are unofficial results which is why we may see some things change as we go through and now we're going to district four again and let's see if those results are still the same so the top vote getter is Evan Ross and the second is Jacqueline Medana and that was not the result we had on the last time that was up so things are are shifting and these are the latest results that have been provided to us by our volunteers and so now we're going to go back to our conversation with Adrian about the state ballot questions and you were about to explain the question three was a question of whether people approved of a law previously approved by the legislature and signed by the governor and that had to do with transgender rights the league's position on that question was well the the league prohibits any kind of discrimination we support civil rights and certainly the the issue of transgender anti-discrimination we supported it when it was passed in 2016 is the law and we are we believe in keeping people safe in all public areas so this is a strong yes from and that was actually the second bill on the subject approved by the legislature a number of years earlier the legislature approved a bill that provided transgender individuals with protections that were much more limited it did not include public accommodation it included housing and employment however our non-discrimination statute has historically also included public accommodation which means you can't be denied service in a restaurant or to check into a hotel or you're in this case the choice of what public restroom you would use and so this was actually the second law the first law did not go on the ballot and was approved by the legislature and there was no effort to repeal it this time there was an effort to repeal it and we'll see before the end of tonight what the voters of Massachusetts decided and so what was the the second ballot question the second bad is the constitutional amendment it's some it is a commission on limiting election spending in corporate rights and to to curb if you will the effects of citizens united 2010 decision versus the FEC and the the support of the league is as follows even though this the the league itself does not support a particular constitutional amendment if this passes that we have the right to really look at that the kind of amendment that's going to be coming out of of this commission that's set up this 15 member commission so the support here is is based on the fact that we will be supporting it but not necessarily any particular amendment and as you point out this is in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision not a state Supreme Court decision or a state statute absolutely and we cannot change the federal constitution unilaterally we can definitely contribute to the discussion in the conversation and a an amendment such as this could be approved in Washington and then the states could one at a time approve it and actually change the U.S. Constitution but that's not what this seeks to do at this point it's a commission to study and discuss and educate the public about the issue and what the options are is that your understanding of it thank you yes good and an issue question number one is the is the nurse staffing ratio and and it took up the most pages and it took up the most pages it is the most dense very controversial issue extremely so waiting for the way the state wide vote goes on this is going to be very interesting so we all know we've read it's it's the pros and the cons the yeses and nos you've got labor versus management you've got bedside nurses versus management nurses you've been all over the place the costs are all over the place so it's a very difficult one this was the only valid issue that the league of the state league was unable to take a stand on so and I should have backed up a little bit stand and I'll explain let me stay with question one the reason that the state league was unable to take a stand on this particular question our position is an affordable health care system that provides equal access to quality health care for all now the the pros side excuse me the pros side argued that that it was going to provide if you have a yes vote that it would provide indeed quality health care for all but against it was that it would also then infringe upon access to by virtue of creating a greater financial cost attached to it so our statement could really be looked at as supporting supporting both therefore the the state league did not take a stand on the issue so this issue has been before the mass legislature for about 20 years and only one other state has actually embraced this policy and that was the state of California and it's been implemented there the mass nurses association has been trying to get legislation passed in Massachusetts for about 20 years so this is an excellent example of people using the ballot to relieve not to relieve pressure to let off the steam of a particular issue because they can't get it resolved in the legislature and they had the right to collect signatures place before the legislature one more time if the legislature failed to act then they got to collect some more signatures and put it on the ballot and now it's direct democracy in action absolutely and I'm told that we have to take a break here in order to provide some more results and I'm gonna ask you to stand by so we can talk about some more things tonight's program is sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters a voice for citizens and a force for change for 80 years in Amherst the League of Women Voters is a non- partisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government works to increase understanding of major public policy and influences public policy through education and advocacy membership is open to all ages 16 years and older to learn more please visit our website at www.lwvamherst.org Amherst Media's capital campaign is offering individuals families and organizations an opportunity to be a permanent fixture on our brick wall of supporters which will be located in the reception area of our new facility your custom brick and have your name your family organization or up to three lines of text and larger sizes are available display your support for the ideals and service Amherst media has provided for over 40 years for information options and pricing go to Amherst media org slash bricks thank you okay so now we're going to share with you all of the results that we have as of this time and again reinforcing that these are not official results and we have all but one precinct with some data and we're going to have to wrap up our show right after this so let's run through one more time and let's see whether we still have the same results as we're read up before so our three at-large counselors appear to be Mandy Joe you know then Alyssa Brewer and Andy Steinberg so those three still seem to be holding as the counselors at large as of this moment and now we're going to go to district one I believe and while we wait here we go district one so we still have Sarah Swartz and Kathy Shone Shane Shane excuse me Kathy Shane are still district one as of this moment district two district two our two counselors there are Lynn Griezmer and Patricia de Angelis okay and now we're going to district three we hope here we go and we still have Dorothy Pam and George Ryan as of this moment again these are all unofficial results stay tuned watch watch the newspaper tomorrow for the finals and we're going to district four and Evan Ross is the top vote getter followed by Jacqueline Medana now we have district five and district five the top vote getter is Darcy Dumont followed by Shalini Baal Milne so those appear to be our unofficial results as of this time and again you'll have to check online or read the newspaper tomorrow to see the actual final results and also the results of the ballot questions so we've run out of time and so we're going to have to end tonight's show there's so much more to talk about and we hope that we can have additional programs further on with League of Women Voters and Amherst media continuing to work together because there's a lot more to talk about and we hope we hope you'll all stay engaged and follow the good work of both of these terrific local organizations thanks for joining us