Republican Slate Absent From Election Ballot

HARWICH – When Republicans vote in the March 5 presidential primary election, they will find something noticeably absent along the right side of the ballot: the names of candidates running for the Republican Town Committee.

A slate of 20 candidates running for the committee was certified by Town Clerk Emily Mitchell within the proper time frame and returned to Republican Town Committee chair Peter Hughes to forward to the Election Division in the Secretary of State’s Office. It apparently never got there.

Mitchell said when she received the sample ballots for the election from the Secretary of State’s Office on Jan. 16, she saw that it lacked the Republican Town Committee slate and instead had 35 spaces for write-in candidates.

“I immediately reached out to the election division,” said Mitchell. “They confirmed that they never received the certified nomination papers from the Republican Town Committee. I got in touch with Peter and he indicated that he had mailed the certified papers to the Secretary of State’s Office in the appropriate time line.”

“When she returned it to me, I mailed it to the election division in the Secretary of State’s Office,” Hughes said. “There’s no follow up from them. I’ve learned a lesson. Next time I’ll drive it up.”

Town committees are elected every four years on the presidential primary election ballot. The role of the committee is to represent their party at the local and neighborhood level, promote the objectives of the party and work for the nomination and election of party candidates.

“It was a nice pick up by the town clerk,” Hughes said, “and we quickly came up with solutions.”

He said Mitchell helped the committee develop a sticker for the 20-member RTC slate that should have been on the ballot. The sticker will fit on the location of the ballot designated for write-in candidates. The law requires that a write-in candidate receive at least five votes, with the candidates with the highest number of votes being elected.

“From my very first phone call to chair Peter Hughes after I opened the digital sample ballot files, my conversation with the chair and other members have been focused entirely on how to productively resolve the problem at hand,” said Mitchell. “They’ve done their diligence in making sure their write-in campaign is organized and adheres to guidelines. They’ve been consistently communicative with us and happy to provide us with samples for testing, contact information for inquiring voters, etc.”

Hughes said he is encouraging members of the town committee to vote by mail and to bring their ballots into the committee meeting so the slate sticker can be placed correctly on the ballot. No major sticker campaign is planned, he added, because only five votes are needed to be elected. A major sticker campaign could impact the tabulating machines when counting votes, he said.

“The RTC has the sole responsibility for distributing those stickers as they see fit,” said Mitchell. “Our office does not have stickers and cannot distribute them. That would be a violation on restrictions on public funds/resources being used for a political campaign. I would recommend reaching out to Peter Hughes if you have specific questions about their sticker distribution plans.”

Write-in votes for qualified Republicans can be placed on the individual lines provided for Republican Town Committee candidates on the ballot. Voters can vote for the slate via sticker, physically write in the slate names, or vote for any qualified individual, including up to 35 names, according to Mitchell.

“A write-in vote will ultimately be counted if the election workers can determine the voter’s intent,” said Mitchell of names. “It will certainly be more time-consuming/labor-intense than if the names had been printed on the ballot. We are trying to let the public know that it will likely take longer than usual for unofficial results to be ready on election night, as all write-ins must be hand-tallied.”