AGAWAM, Mass. (WWLP) – The City of Agawam chose to opt out of in-person and mail-in voting this year.
State laws allow Massachusetts cities and towns to opt out of early voting by mail. Agawam’s city clerk said the reason why the town is not having in-person and mail-in this year is because of logistics.
According to the city clerk, Agawam’s election schedule does not follow the normal state election schedule. Therefore there would only be three weeks between the primary and general election. This short window doesn’t guarantee that ballots could printed, delivered, and returned in time by election day. To make mail-in and in-person voting available in the future, the city is looking to amend its charter.
“So as a remedy, the Agawam city council has sent to the legislature special legislation to amend the town charter to make our election schedule more in line with the state schedule so there will be a larger interval of time between the election which would allow for mail-in balloting in the future,” said Vince Gioscia, City Clerk.
The city was able to have mail-in voting during the pandemic because the voting did not follow the town’s schedule.
The upcoming city election on November 7th will feature the office of the Mayor as well as seats for the City Council and School Committee on the ballot.
Alanna Flood is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2022. Follow Alanna on X @alannafloodnews and view her bio to see more of her work.
