Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Truro are remote. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch. The agenda includes instructions on how to join.
Thursday, May 25
- Climate Action Committee, 10 a.m., Public Library
- OPEB (other post-employment benefits) Trust, 1 p.m., Town Hall
- School Committee, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 31
- Walsh Property Community Planning Committee, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Recount Confirms Child-Care Funding
The Community Sustainability Package, a bundle of three child-care programs to be financed by a Proposition 2½ override, passed easily at town meeting. But after it was approved by only one vote at the election on May 9, the town received two petitions calling for a recount on the ballot question.
The recount, which took place on May 22, confirmed the win by a slightly wider margin — three votes instead of just one. The new results were 293 in favor and 290 against.
Town Clerk Kaci Fullerton called the recount a “best case scenario,” because, she said, “everybody got to ask their questions and find out what they wanted to find out.”
The recount took place at the Community Center, where four separate tables were staffed by tally markers, ballot readers, and observing “agents” who were named by the two recount petitioners — Eric Parker and Michael Forgione — and by a proponent of the override question, Raphael Richter.
As the tables tallied “blocks” of 50 ballots, the agents were permitted to raise objections regarding a particular ballot mark. “They can’t touch the ballot, but they’re open to inspect it,” Fullerton said. She added that discussions of voter intent were allowed.
At one point, one of the petitioners did object, Fullerton said, and the ballot went to the board of registrars — seated at the front of the room, flanked by town counsel, a police officer, a minute taker, and Fullerton herself — for final determination. The objector wound up withdrawing the objection before a determination was made.
The slight shift in the count did not surprise Richter. “It’s a human process,” he said, “and the counters on the day of are counting a lot more questions.” —Sophie Mann-Shafir
