 Okay, so welcome everybody to our Amherst community chat for Thursday, October 15th. Today we're going to be talking about elections and voting and our special guests are acting town clerk Sue Audette. Welcome Sue. Thank you. Amherst facilities director Jeremiah LaPlante. Welcome Jeremiah. Thank you. So before we get started with Q&As from the room and questions that were pre-submitted, I'm going to allow your town manager Paul Balkaman to give any updates he has. Thanks Brianna. Thanks for everybody for being here. So two, two things I want to mention one is today is the first day of school and so many children and teachers are so excited to be back for the youngest teacher, the youngest students especially. And that's been going really well so far today. It's we're halfway through the day. So it's a gorgeous day to begin and there's just a lot of pent up energy and everybody's so excited to see each other so the school district has done a tremendous job on putting in proper protocols so everyone is being safe and so thank goodness we're back at school. The other thing is that yesterday last late late in the day the state announced that the town of Amherst along with 62 other communities in the Commonwealth continues to be read, which we were not surprised by we anticipated that that would happen because the way the red thing or the way design red designation, which, which is defined as higher risk is defined as it is a retrospective count of going back two weeks and so we've had a very high count the two weeks prior so we're hoping that next week we might drop out of the red boat it depends on how many new cases come through our system. But again, working really well with the university and with our acting health director, Jen Brown, who will be at the town council meeting on Monday talking about the what's going on in the community. So that's my quick updates. Great, thank you. I wanted to give our special guest a chance to introduce themselves, especially Jeremiah since he's relatively new to the town so Jeremiah could you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about what it is that you do for the town. Certainly. Yes, my name is Jeremiah LaPlante and I'm the facilities and maintenance manager. I oversee a lot of the different various town buildings, ensuring that we are in compliance with all life safety measures. Also looking at the building envelope in the grounds, just making sure that they're maintained adequately. We also have a number of staff who helps with our maintenance and sanitation of those facilities. So that's general overview. Great, thank you. And Sue. Yes, hi, I'm Sue Audette. I'm the acting town clerk. Currently, I have been the assistant town clerk for the past 15 years before becoming acting. Working in the town clerk's office the whole time, which is probably a lot of people know we run the elections and but we also take care of the town census we take care of dog licensing vital records. Business certificate is a multitude of other kinds of licenses and permitting. But happy to be here and I'm happy to get some information out to everyone. Great. Thank you both. So I just want to remind the attendees in the room that they can raise their hand via zoom to ask a question live in the room or press star nine if they're calling in from a phone. You may also use the q amp a function that we have within the webinar to post your question. So until we get some hands in the room I have some questions that have been sent into us. I'll start with this one. If I submit my vote early. When does it get counted. So, um, we are currently in the midst of receiving ballots in and all those ballots that are received in either through the mail or dropped off in our drop box are being stored in the town vault, and they are going to be counted on election day nothing is going to be counted ahead of election day. And that's a state law right so actually we have the option of doing advanced removal and counting, but we opted not to do that. Yeah, we're going to have a central tabulation facility just for the early ballots that will be counted on election day for the team. And you were saying earlier to me how many mail in ballots have you sent out or have been requested for Amherst. It's a big number. Yes. I remember out of 16,600 voters currently as of yesterday, we have sent, or we have received 8400 requests for mail in ballots that's total between early ballots and absentee ballots. So they're still coming back in so I don't have a number for how many have returned but I'm, it's ongoing. Do you do we want to take the chance to talk about some of the key dates that are coming up I know there's a lot of different deadlines and dates over the next couple of weeks so maybe this is a good time to shot about that. Yeah, absolutely. So first we have early voting starting this Saturday 1017. It's from 10 to two over the banks community center which is 70 boat would walk it's going to be on the lower level. So you'll see. And it goes through 1030 so it's two solid weeks of early voting that's seven. That's 14 days in a row during in these these hours are posted on town website if you care to look but during the week it's normal business hours that we are open so it's eight to 430. And on the weekends this coming weekend is 10 to two Saturday and Sunday both and the following weekend that Saturday 1024 it's we are open two to 8pm on that day. Mainly because it's the last day to register to vote so see my segue into the last day to register to vote. So we will be there with our registration forms for anyone who wants to come in and register to vote. On Sunday 1025 will be there again from 10 to two, and then the following week again Monday through Friday, eight to 430. That's for early voting and last day to register to vote. If you'd like to vote by mail, you must submit an application in writing, and the last day to do that would be October 28 by 5pm. And lastly on the other end. If you've received your ballot and you sent it back the last day that you can that we can receive ballots in is November 3 election day, your ballot must be postmarked by that date in order to be counted. Okay, and we have up until November 6 5pm in which to receive the ballot so that's a little confusing this is something brand new for this election. But we want to make sure we can get as many ballots in as possible. So if you did not go to vote early in person. If you did not drop off your ballot early before November 3, you still have until November 3 to get it postmarked in the mail and we have up until November 6 to receive that ballot. Hopefully. Lots of moving parts. Also say that might generate some questions. So I'll just remind folks again, you can raise your hand star nine or put q amp a right into the q amp a button. We have another question here that what is the town doing to ensure the voters safety for in person voting. Jeremiah, do you. Jeremiah, do you want me to start and you can finish. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Alright, so we of course, every polling place has a constable, but we are going to double up on the busier polling places with constable police officers. And that as far as personal protective equipment. This is where I'll let Jeremiah segue. We've ordered a lot and we've received a lot so Jeremiah. So we have 20, I believe it's 20 right plexiglass shields and those would be for the election workers to 40 actually 40. There's two we have so there'll be four at each polling location. And this will help create some separation between the election workers and the townspeople coming in to cast their vote. Each of those polling locations is supplied with like a disinfecting wipe cleaning materials. We also have like a stand up hands free hand sanitizer dispensers that we're going to have at each one of those polling locations. So when you we come through the door you can sanitize up, you know, check in and go cast your vote. We also have quite a number of stanchions and this will help with that crowd control and help with directing the townspeople into the appropriate areas of each of those polling locations. So for this last primary Sue and the town clerk's office had purchased 30 stanchions and we went ahead and purchase another 50. So that gives us several hundred more feet of barrier that we can put up to help with that that crowd control and create that separation. So in some of the polling locations we we did paint some some stripes on the ground, and that will help with the distancing. And I would say for for this one, and anticipate seeing a lot more of my graffiti on the ground I will I will be happy to put, put more I was telling Sue I want to make a template so it'll be a little bit more so than just a strike on the ground. And to increase the amount of of those that signage those directional signage I know at the high school we added quite a bit more just because there's three polling locations in that space. But each one of those, those different polling locations will have a whole bunch more. Smith and Wesson Smith and Wesson had donated, I think 500 face shields for the elections. So we have, we have our masks. We have the face shields. We have hand sanitizers we have disinfecting wipes, and then post elections. I am bringing in a team and doing viral disinfecting for the entire space that we take up for the elections. So we have a team of specialists, they come in and do like ionization cleaning fogging. So we do we have that viral disinfecting that happens after post election so there's a lot a lot of safety measures. So yeah, Jeremiah has done a tremendous job of laying out each precinct, both on the ground in a location but then on a plan also so everyone can look at it and see if it works Sue can look at it and say this works for me. You know, when people bring up safety issues they bring up two different things I think one is what we've sort of addressed which is, are you covered safe basically are we, what are what are the precautions put in place to make sure that I don't get infected because it's where I've been very good at staying home and avoiding crowds and things like that. The other piece of it though is, will I be interfered with if I try to vote and I know this this you know we all know that this election has a lot of energy around it. And I think that, you know, again, the town has thought about that. There are designated areas in every precinct for observers which isn't anyone can go in and observe the voting going on but they have to be in. They have to be standing in designated places that are be laid out, I think at each precinct and then also the warden at the precinct can control where that where people can go is that accurate. That is yes. So I think, but so I think, you know, people are saying well what do you have been asking what is the town doing to make sure that we're not interfered with and that people aren't are able to vote freely and I think that that's something that that we've really thought about and Sue and Jeremiah have thought about and have consulted with others in the state and Secretary of State because they're aware of it as well. Are there things that tend to pop up during presidential election Sue that don't come up at regular elections that you know I know that there are a lot of people who only vote presidential elections for instance, they don't pay attention but everybody pays attention to a presidential election. What are the types of things that you sometimes hear happen at the election sites. I think I don't think it's any different than any other one except for the sheer volume of people that come out to vote. And because of that, you're dealing with crowd control and you're dealing with lines, and yeah, people getting impatient. So I don't think, yeah, if there isn't anything specific that that's pretty much it that I can remember, you're asking me to remember four years ago. You probably see more campaigning for the, for the presidentials and, and each of the, each of the polling locations each of the wardens, I created a map so they, they would know where that that campaigning spaces because they, anyone who who is there with signage has to be a certain distance away from the entrance. Yeah, 150 feet. All right, so we've got some questions here. This community members expressing nervousness about COVID and social distancing when they go to vote and asking, are people required to wear masks when voting in person and what if someone refuses. People are not required to wear masks. This is from the Secretary of State's office we cannot force people to wear a mask. If we see someone that does not have a mask we will offer them a mask. If they refuse to take it then what we're going to do is allow the people that are currently in that polling place to finish voting. If everybody's out, we're going to have that voter vote by themselves. And when they're finished, then people will be allowed back in. And I also, we didn't mention that we will have a dedicated poll worker doing nothing but disinfecting after every single voter with the voting boost depends everything that's touched. So that's going to be happening as well. It's like, like a lot of staff do. We have a lot of staff. Yeah, that's good. Yes. Well, it's been great. We've had a lot of people volunteer to work this time that had never worked before that it's been great. And we also have a, where's my here. We've got a backup of an additional about approximately 70 workers sitting in the wings that we can call upon. And that doesn't. Yes, yes. Yes, it's been wonderful. Thank you everyone out there. So do you want to say a little bit about the grant that was recently received and how that's going to help support this election cycle. Absolutely. We applied for a grant from the Center for tech and civic life that was advertised to all cities and towns dealing with coven and helping to run elections more smoothly with any product that you need and we were lucky we got $34,000. And it was quick and easy. So with that money, we've been purchasing additional PPE equipment we've been purchasing signage, all those touchless hand sanitize everything is coming out of this grant money so Yeah, we thank the company that gave us this and I don't know what else to say on that but it's it's it's allowed us to move forward and do things that we would otherwise have a hard time purchasing. Yeah, I think it was a real godsend and congratulations to you and Brianna for putting that that grant together and getting it done so quickly and having to come back so quickly. I think your idea of having bilingual signage signage that you're going to have out there is really important. And so, yeah, there's a lot of things that had we not had this grant we would not be able to do and I just adds to the safety, really in the security of the election. Yeah, absolutely. I have a question that just came in through the Q&A. What is the non UMass student COVID infection rate in Amherst, how many cases. Okay, so I do not know that number I knew I know a week or so ago, practically every case in Amherst was was a affiliate of UMass. Since that time there have been some new cases and I'm not checked with the health director to know how many of those are UMass related and how many are not UMass related. I think we're at 53. I didn't check the numbers this morning. We're in the, we're around 50 in terms of active cases and active cases mean someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in the 10 day period when you are they're analyzing which direction the disease goes. We anticipate that you will see that number drop down because it's been about 10 or 14 days since the initial cases were identified and those cases as they age out will drop off of our active list. So, but I think we're pretty safe to say a vast majority of the cases are related to the university. Yes, and in general we tend leading up to that recent cluster or outbreak we hadn't been making designations between cases what popular members of the population they were from. So we typically won't report out on that on the on our daily case counts, but we do update the site every we will update it every afternoon at four to get the most accurate count. Okay, so thank you for your question. I'm going to go to the next question. What if I mail in my ballot and decide I actually want to vote on election day, which one will be counted. Okay, I love this question. This this is a common question. So if you mail in your ballot and we have received it and which you can find that out by the way by going to track my ballot MA calm and allow about a day or two for us to have time to scan it in. But if we have received your ballot in, you're done voting. You cannot vote in person. It's over and done. So take your time with your mail and ballots if you receive them be sure that you want to send it back. You know, once you do, you're done. If on the other hand you have received a mail in ballot and you decide I'd rather just show up in person and vote I like the voting process I like to see my neighbors like you know I like the whole experience. That is fine. You would just you can destroy that ballot and just show up on election day or during the early voting hours and vote in person. But the key is to not return your ballot because once it's received by us you're done. Your name actually comes off the list of being an eligible voters because you've already voted. It actually doesn't come off the list. There's an X in the box is going to show up that you apply for a ballot and we received your ballot and X we received it you're done. Yeah, it's like being checked off the check in list. Yeah, you're checked off with an X. And I noticed in your ballot box outside of town hall which is which is on the main street side of town hall and it's a secure ballot box. Often get people asking, can't someone just walk away with it and I know that Jeremiah has has has chained it to the building so it can't go away. But do you have a little sign on there now that says before you put your ballot in here make sure that you signed it make sure that all this because those those are really nice reminder because I think one of the sometimes people forget to sign the envelope which is what's required before it can so it can be counted. Are there other ways that other hints for people so they make sure their vote isn't disqualified. I mean signing the envelope is the key thing right. Signing the envelope is key and actually if we receive one that's not signed will send out a second ballot will reject will reject that one and we'll send out a second ballot if time allows, you know if we're talking two days before the election obviously we won't send it then but I think if they if the ballot is not inserted into that manila envelope which is called an EV seven or an AV seven. You know that's another thing. If you haven't filled out the envelope at all. Is that what's in those all those boxes behind you. Yes. Yeah, we have all kinds of envelopes, voter directions everything. So, yeah the science that's the most important thing insert your ballot in the envelope. Oh, here's a question I have heard from people is that my envelope won't stick. I looked at it won't stick. You can tape it you can scotch tape it that's fine. So that won't disqualify it that the important thing is, it has your signature on there. All right, so one of these questions we kind of talked about a little bit when you were talking about how many staff members it takes to successfully have this in person voting. This person you used to used to work in the polls but can't right now do to coven and they're concerned that you have enough workers. It sounds like you do, but how has that impacted recruiting and retaining election workers in light of coven. It definitely has impacted our art. We have a base of election workers that work pretty steadily. So I would say probably half of the people didn't feel comfortable working, which we expected, but word has gotten out through various channels that we needed election workers and people have really stepped up to the plate when we filled out online the election worker questionnaire. And from there we would we would just, you know, take the information and continue forward so that's how we've ended up with about 70 people in the wings. And we've had to see a lot of younger people step forward. And I don't know if it's because remote learning, they have time, they're not in class every single day they more flexible but it's been great you know, while we hate to see the people that are the experienced dedicated you know I've been doing it for years not be here. On the other hand it's nice to see new people get involved and learn what is involved in running an election. So, yeah. Alright, so I'm going to give one last call for questions to our attendees feel free to use this time to put something in the Q&A box or raise your hand via Zoom so we can hear from you live. While we give a moment for that to happen, I'd like to invite each of our guests to share something that they didn't necessarily get asked that they think would be relevant to our community members now so I'm going to pick on you Jeremiah. I was going I hope not me I got to think. Thank God. I guess I guess I just want to just sort of continue with the same message of safety and just state that, aside from working with Sue and my smaller staff, and in all of the individuals who who are helping out with the election. I really have to give a shout out to Guilford and the DPW. They do such great work and and seeing seeing that that collaboration and all of us sort of come together for the primary. Because there is, there is so much work with with there being 10 polling locations I just maybe maybe didn't really share anything but I really didn't want to sort of tip my hat to Guilford and his team for for all of their assistance and all of this. I second that. It's a true team effort it sounds like huge. Yeah. No, please you go Sue. Okay, there was one other thing, something called the six month rule with more numbers here. So if you find if you have moved, you were living in Amherst but now you've moved somewhere else within six months so the date would be May 3. So if you've moved after May 3, but you have not registered to vote in your new location, you can return to your old location and vote. So this is a six month rule within Massachusetts you have to move within Massachusetts though you can't be moving out of state. Okay, so I just wanted to throw that out if anybody has any questions on that they can contact our office but this is something on the state website mass doc of you can look it up. So if you find yourself oh gosh I've moved and I forgot to register to vote and you are still current registered voter in a prayer prior location you can go back back to that location, as long as it was from May 3 on. I had never heard that that's kind of like the five second rule but for learning something new every day. All right Paul did you have any. Yeah, so I mean, so Jeremiah did trigger my thoughts that when you realize how much work has to go into this I mean facility staff are putting together the stanchions and all these different things that they're working on. It's an advanced laying out the planning, the actual work, and then on that morning or the day before DPW is out there going to 10 different locations taking all the equipment to all the locations at the end of the voting period, taking all that equipment back and making sure it's secure coming, you know, all the ballots have to come back to town hall where they're put in the vault. And they're stored for a certain number of weeks. In case there's a recount or anything like that. Just the, the number of moving parts and pulling off an election, especially one in coven times and presidential election all at the same time. So I'm really credit to Jeremiah and especially Sue for stepping up, taking on this incredible task during difficult times. So just it was really terrific. I see the things that we did for the primary and how we've learned from the primary, making some adjustments, listening to the wardens and saying here's the things that we could improve improving them and, and making sure that the general election, November is open from 7am to 8pm. Make sure I get that right. And so I think it's just a really attribute to town staff for doing that. Thank you. And I'll add as an Amherst voter perspective myself, I feel that my, you know, my rights as a voter in this kind of new landscape have been thoughtfully taken care of throughout these processes. I know everybody on this chat and other departments have contributed to making sure that the voters and Amherst are taken care of. So, I think that is very obvious with all your programming and safety measures so I thank you for that. I'll take one last minute to say thank you to our special guests. Thank you so much for joining us on our website and more will be added there. You can contact the town clerk's office with any questions at 413-259-3035. Very good. And you can email them at town clerk at amherstma.gov. And we will be back next Thursday at noon for another Amherst community chat and every Thursday after that, except for probably Thanksgiving, I don't know if we're going to do that, but So thank you all for joining us today and to all our attendees and viewers who are going to watch this later. Have a great day. You too. Thank you. Thanks, Brianna. Thank you. Thank you.