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08/30/2016 12:45 PMHearing town employees and election workers’ logistical issues associated with managing a presidential election and a referendum vote on the same day, the Board of Selectmen agreed to move the blight ordinance vote to another date.
At a special Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Aug. 23, Registrar of Voters Nancy Moore described the logistical issues election workers face in a presidential election year.
“A presidential election is huge. Eighty percent of the [town’s] voters showed up last time. You have two [voting] districts [in town] and we also have same-day voter registration, which involves a time-consuming process,” said Moore.
Moore went on to explain that for the blight ordinance vote, were it on the same day, would complicate the process. The blight question vote would have to have a separate election moderator, separate ballot counters, and a separate station at which property owners could be qualified to vote based on property assessments in excess of $1,000. The poll workers doing these jobs could not be the same as those assigned to do same-day voter registration for each district in the Presidential race.
If the blight vote were scheduled for Nov. 8, there would be one ballot for one district, one for the other district, one for each absentee, and another for the referendum question.
One example of a past joint vote was a vote on the Town Charter that was scheduled for the November ballot. As explained as last week’s meeting, only registered voters were able to vote on the charter; property owners were not eligible. Same-day voter registration was also not in effect on that town charter vote day, a requirement today that is time-consuming for election workers.
In a town vote in which property owners not registered to vote can participate, their eligibility requires an extra step, a check with the Town Assessor’s office.
“Any property held in trust cannot vote in a referendum,” said Assessor Pam Fogarty.
And where a property is owned by several owners but only one name is on the deed, only one can vote.
“Only the person whose name is on an assessed property can vote,” said Fogarty.
In town budget or other referendum votes where property owners not registered to vote can cast ballots, each possible voter’s eligibility must be checked and verified by the Town Assessor’s office.
“We don’t want people to think we’re against voting on the blight ordinance,” said Town Clerk Joan Angelini. “There’s just too much [going on] at one time.”
Council of Beaches (COB) Chairman Barbara Wolf then asked the selectmen to honor a long-standing request from the COB to wait for any important action, such as the blight ordinance vote, until the beach people are in town.
“I very much request that we move the Town Meeting to next July. I feel badly for the Blight Committee and for the delay, but I’d like to see this happen next July,” said Wolf.
The Board of Selectmen then voted to cancel the Aug. 24 Town Meeting, and to send the blight ordinance to a Town Meeting in the first two weeks of June 2017. The BOS vote was unanimous.
Blight Ordinance Text
The current version of the proposed Blight Ordinance, dated July 7, 2016, is substantially the same as that presented last summer in a town forum meeting.
Its sections provided definitions of a blighted or abandoned premises and defines the roles of the ordinance’s enforcement structure.
The scope of the ordinance is described in Section 2:
“No owner of real property located in the Town of Westbrook shall allow, create, maintain, or cause to be created or maintained, blighted premises. This chapter shall apply to the maintenance of all premises now in existence or hereafter constructed, maintained, or modified but shall exclude: agricultural lands and entire farm properties..., land preserved in its natural wooded state, meadow or field, open space, land trust property, conservation easement, areas designated as inland wetlands or watercourses, tidal wetlands, or commercial properties whose activities include storage or processing of materials and equipment related to their business.”