ORDER-2022-79 : Appointment of Brigid Alverson, 11 Garden Street, to the Board of Registrars of Voters for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025

Transcript (~11 min @ 1:55)

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▶ 1:46 Maya Jamaleddine: the agenda order 2022-79 appointment of bridget alberton 11 garden street to the board of registrar of waters for a three years term set term to expire on the last day of february 2025.

▶ 2:06 Maya Jamaleddine: i'd like to request motion to suspend motion to suspend the rules second okay we have motion to suspend the rules made by councillor mcleary seconded by president um the rules are now suspended all in favor aye aye any opposed okay the rules are now suspended can we comment the mayor

▶ 2:39 Paul Brodeur: thank you madam chair members of the finance committee and other members of the board One of the most important things that we've been talking about as a country for the last couple of years, and maybe more so as elections, access to ballots, and things of that nature, it is the fundamental task that we have as kind of the stewards of democracy in our community. And the way we do that here in Melrose and across Massachusetts is through local boards the registrars of voters there's a lot of law around who and when who can be on and when they can be on but what these folks do as you all know as elected officials is make sure that elections and registration and process all runs according to the law I do want to plug a couple of things you all see my my sons here behind me and he's mildly willingly willing to be here and it's always great for kids to be able to see this stuff but he reminds me that here in Massachusetts we have what's called pre-registration what that means is you can pre-register to vote on your 16th birthday so that on your 18th birthday you are automatically registered to vote and you don't have to worry about logistics or anything like that you're automatically good to go not a ton of kids take advantage of it so I think it's always a good time to to remind folks that and maybe parents that their kids have that opportunity and to encourage them to take advantage of that that having been said I do want I want to quickly say thank you to Eric Wildman Eric Wildman served on the board in in a role that we're asking Mrs. Alverson to fill he did an exemplary job in doing what I just described, making sure that elections ran freely, fairly, with equal access to all, and his accomplishments are appreciated and will certainly be missed. That having been said, I suspect you all know Bridget Alverson. She has served the city in many capacities. I first met Bridget when she was a reporter at the Melrose Free Press. She then became a member of the Dolan administration, and what you quickly learn is that you got to be a jack of all trades, regardless of what your title might happen to be. She did that through three administrations before retiring, and has also been active in our elections process. She served as a poll worker, as her husband George was with us tonight. only does she know and is committed to that fundamental fairness we talked about but has also seen it in action and seen how it works so I'm delighted to be here today to offer her for your consideration as our next registrar

▶ 5:47 Speaker 1: member of the Regist board of registrars and voters I'm honored to be here before you tonight to even be considered for this. I'm a strong believer in fair and impartial elections. I cast my first vote when I was 18 years old. It was still kind of a novelty at the time for 18 year olds to vote and while my views on many things have changed, over the years my belief in the importance of voting as a fundamental right has not. As you know I have a little experience starting over 20 years ago when as a reporter for the Melrose Free Press I covered the 2001 mayoral election, which Rob Dolden won by a single vote. Some of you were down there in the vaults with me that night. Covering that election and the recount that followed really gave me a sense of how important it was to have a good process in place and to have conscientious people who are overseeing that process. It was also an object lesson in the importance of each individual vote, something that my children are really tired of hearing about. In my house, you don't vote, you don't eat. After I left the paper, in 2004, I started working the polls. And I really enjoyed being a poll worker. I learned a lot seeing things from that side. When I went to work for the mayor, I had to stop, although I still would fill in from time to time. And like Paul says, you're a jack of all trades. So I helped out in the elections office. And then after my retirement, I was part of the process for the primary elections of 2020 and the primary and general elections and it was just amazing to me to see how the offices here turned on a dime and came up with a process that was straightforward transparent and worked incredibly smoothly really the staff the volunteers everybody involved with that deserves a lot of credit for the for the great job they did with that election when I was so so I think part of the reason that I want to do this is the same reason that I really liked working at the mayor's office that my first commitment is to good government to making the government work and work for the people and as a member of the Board of Registrars of Voters if you choose to approve me I will do my best to keep things running smoothly and efficiently and transparently for all involved thank you

▶ 8:22 Leila Migliorelli: yeah thank you mayor broder and thank you ms alverson for being here tonight um thank you also for your long-standing service to melrose it's quite an accomplishment and it's wonderful to see you coming back and serving the city in this role um just curious since you've over the past um two years we've been doing elections a little bit differently and i just wanted to get what some of your takeaways are from your experience working in the polls in the last two years um through the pandemic and um what have you witnessed during those elections that that you might want to change or improve upon during your time on the board?

▶ 8:56 Speaker 1: You know, I think the only change that I would make would be to make the changes that occurred permanent. We saw a huge, I mean, we would have seen a huge increase in voting, in voter turnout anyway, with the presidential election. But the fact that it was possible to vote early, it didn't used to be as easy as it was in Massachusetts as it is now. So allowing people to vote by mail, allowing no excuse absentee voting, having the early voting sessions really made a huge difference. I mean, the elections office also stepped up with some new technology that made everything easier. Right now, I think in Massachusetts, though, we get it right. We have a simple and yet auditable system because you mark your ballot. It's a paper ballot. It's counted digitally for speed. But I've been through more than one recount. It's nice to have the paper there at the end of the day. And I also think that the people, certainly the people that I have worked with, have been very committed to every eligible voter gets to vote. And if there's a question, we do a provisional ballot or whatever. But we've seen, and I don't think a lot of people even remember that election where Rob won by a single vote, but I think it's a very, very important principle that every legitimate vote counts. i've seen our staff may be very good so honestly i right now i don't see room for improvement i think that they have really come up with a system over the past you know two years that has worked very very well it's been an improvement great thank you anyone else thank you uh i'm a non-voting

▶ 10:42 Jack Eccles: member of this committee but i'm very excited to see miss alverson step up she was um i worked for her as an intern in the mayor's office yes it's it's very nice to see your continued service after what's been a very long career in melrose one of the most best super voters probably in

▶ 11:02 Jen Grigoraitis: thank you next we have counselor Grigoraitis thank you madam chair i'm also a non-voting member of this committee and i just wanted to thank you for your willingness to come out of retirement to take on the service to your city this is a huge amount of time i'm not sure how much the general public understands that when we got all those mail-in ballots last year it was members of the clerk's office and the elections office and the board of registrars who are here sometimes for 10 12 hours a day to make sure they were processed so i'm sorry to your family but thank you for your willingness to do this and i'm really excited to have you taking on this role

▶ 11:40 Maya Jamaleddine: thank you of elections and next we have vice chair Garipay thank you very much

▶ 11:45 Mark Garipay: mount chair uh at this time i'd like to make a motion uh to recommend order 2022-79

▶ 11:55 Maya Jamaleddine: for passage to the full council we have a recommendation made by vice chair um Garipay seconded by president sanella all in favor aye aye any oppose on discussion

▶ 12:11 Maya Jamaleddine: I would like to actually thank you for stepping up and taking on this new role. I know we've worked together on so many events and so many topics. I do have one question and it's no secret that now the consolidation polls is one of the hottest topics in terms of the election in the city. What is your opinion on that? And how do you feel this would serve the city or not?

▶ 12:43 Speaker 1: I definitely can see advantages and disadvantages to that. It's wonderful to be able to vote and to walk to a place in your neighborhood and vote. However, I think that we also have to look at cost effectiveness. Certainly, the system of voting in the middle school has worked well. And I think as long as that's accompanied by a robust, not only letting people know where to vote, but also making it very easy for them to vote without actually going to the polls. So I think as long as we continue to do that,