Raymond Select Board schedules election to fill vacant seat for June

By Ed Pierce

Members of the Raymond Select Board voted unanimously not to conduct a special election to fill a vacancy on the board but instead will schedule the election coinciding with Maine Primary Day voting in June.

The vacant seat on the Raymond Select Board
will be filled during a special election on June
9 at Jordan-Small Middle School. The vacancy
was created when voters removed Select Board
Chair Denis Morse by recall on Dec, 30.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

During a Select Board meeting on Feb. 3, board members decided to follow a recommendation made by Raymond Town Clerk Melanie Fernald in which an election will be held Tuesday, June 9.

Fernald said that the normal time frame to conduct an election is 100 days and includes a 40-day window for candidates to gather signatures from registered voters.

She said that if nomination papers were made available by the Raymond Town Clerk’s Office on Tuesday, March 3 and a deadline established to have the nomination and required signatures returned for verification by Friday, April 10, it would meet the 100-day window under Maine law.

The Select Board position was created by a special recall election conducted by the town on Dec. 30 in which voters removed Raymond Select Board Chair Denis Morse from office by a 282-260 vote margin. The term for the Select Board position vacated by Morse’s recall runs through June 2027, so the time that the elected candidate would be required to serve in office following the June election would be 12 months.

By voting to hold the election in June, Raymond Select Board members acknowledged that three board seats would be chosen including two for three-year terms and then one to serve out the remainder of what is left of Morse’s one-year term.

At a Raymond Select Board meeting in January to certify results of the recall election, Fernald said that under provisions outlined in the town’s recall ordinance adopted in 2012, an election should be scheduled 30 to 45 days after the Select Board certifies the results of the recall election.

“The ordinance doesn't require the Select Board to approve that date for the special election, just that the Clerk prepare and call the election,” Fernald said.

Given the very tight turnaround time prescribed by the ordinance compared to usual procedures, interested candidates in running for the Select Board vacancy would have had a shortened time to collect signatures on nomination papers containing more than 25 verified signatures from Raymond voters and the window for absentee voting would have to had been shortened as well, she said.

But Select Board members opted to delay finalizing a decision on scheduling the date for an election to fill the vacancy while awaiting clarification from the town attorney.

Raymond Interim Town Manager Glenn Michalowski advised the board that the town attorney said that waiting until the Town Meeting in June to hold an election to fill the vacancy does not exceed state regulations.

Members of the public told the board that scheduling an election in February at the earliest was too soon and would hamper voting, citing extremely slow mail delivery, vacationing residents not having enough time to vote by absentee balloting and a lack of time for potential candidates to become known by Raymond residents.

Several Raymond Select Board members said they voted to hold the election in June for the vacant seat because they believe every candidate for office in Raymond deserves a fair shake and a normal time frame for candidates to gather signatures and to submit a petition for being included on the ballot.

Raymond Select Board members exercise the town's executive and administrative powers, overseeing town functions through the appointed town manager, hiring town officials, managing highways, setting town fees, administering public health regulations, dealing with tax abatement appeals, implementing policy and serving town residents' needs. Select Board members are elected on a non-partisan basis and serve three year-terms in office.

Town bylaws specify that the Select Board shall deal with administrative services solely through the town manager and shall not give orders to any subordinates of the manager, either publicly or privately. This does not prevent the Select Board members from appointing committees or commissions of members, or of citizens to conduct investigations into the conduct of any official or department, or any matter relating to the welfare of the town. <