One Polling Location for Westwood Voters in Upcoming April 26th Election

Image of Westwood High School by John Phelan from Wikimedia Commons.

On Tuesday, April 26, 2022 Westwood voters from across precincts will cast their ballots in the gymnasium of Westwood High School, declared the Select Board at its March 14, 2022 meeting. The high school is located at 200 Nahatan Street.

Due to an increase of population between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Westwood is required to add a new precinct, increasing the number of precincts from four to five. With the added precinct, Town Clerk Dottie Powers explained at Select Board's meeting that consolidating voting locations of precincts made sense. Westwood High School was determined to the best location because it is the largest building in town.

Reasons for the consolidation include:

• Savings of $10,000 per election;
• Voters will be more likely to remember their polling location;
• Reduction of police details, custodial overtime, and election workers;
• One location for delivery of voting equipment saves time and costs;
• Past use of Westwood's elementary schools for polling locations has been associated with disruptions and use of space that otherwise would be used for class and after school care.

The limited availability of parking at the high school was brought up as a concern, but Ms. Powers noted that Superintendent Emily Parks is looking into making Election Day coincide with an in-service day. In-service days are set aside for teachers to learn ways to improve educational content and practices in the schools. They typically mean no school for students, which would help solve the concern about adequate parking.

After the presentation by Ms. Powers and a short discussion, Select Board unanimously agreed to consolidate the polling location for Westwood's five precincts at Westwood High School. In the approved motion, consolidating the polling location was specified for the April 26, 2022 election, but no mention was made of additional elections. Prior to the vote, Mr. Walsh noted he was comfortable with approving the change because Select Board can revisit the topic if this change does not work well.

Along with in-person voting at the high school, residents can vote with an Absentee Ballot. The Town of Westwood's website provides a discussion of Absentee Ballots and notes that voters can vote by mail or make an appointment to  vote in-person at the Office of the Town Clerk on Monday, April 25, 2022. Absentee Ballots will be available as soon as April 5, 2022. The deadline to apply for one is Wednesday, April 20, 2022.  The application for an Absentee Ballot is available here. 

April 6, 2022 is the last day to register to vote in Town Election.