Audit of June ballot mishap still undone as presidential election looms
When a box of 202 uncounted ballots from the town election turned up in July, Town Clerk Kandy Lavallee and the Select Board called for an independent audit of the mishap.
With just four weeks to go before Election Day, that audit — contracted to Lauren Goldberg, of the firm KP Law, which specializes in public sector law — has yet to be completed.
“It seems like it’s gone into this weird black hole,” Select Board member Mathew Often said.
June’s town election, the first under COVID-19 restrictions, brought in a record 1,855 mailed-in early or absentee ballots. In the confusion, a single box from Precinct 2 was left behind in the town clerk’s vault and not discovered until a week later.
Lavallee immediately established new protocols for the handling of early ballots, including color-coded boxes and a larger depository for hand-delivered ballots outside the Municipal Center. The audit, she said then, would clear both her mind and the public’s that the office was ready for the 2020 presidential election.
Last month’s state primary election went off without a hitch, but November — and its anticipated jump in voter turnout — now looms. Voters are now requesting ballots by mail. In-person early voting starts October 17. Election Day is Nov. 3.
“We’re here,” Often said. “People are voting.”
Select Board member Ed Prisby said that K&P, which represents more than a third of the cities and towns in Massachusetts, should not be Grafton’s only option.
“I have, to be candid, questions about the operations of the office right now,” Prisby said. “I’ll just say it: if we can’t get this done between now and November, we’re going to have to find someone else.
“In my lifetime, there has never been a more important election… I need to hear somebody between now and November that this will go off without a hitch,” he added.
Select Board member Doreen DeFazio requested that Temporary Town Administrator Carter Terenzini check in with K&P.
“Experts who don’t do the job are no use,” said Terenzini, who said he would look into alternatives.
