Nomination Papers For Town-Wide Posts, Town Meeting Members Now Available For Pick Up

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Photo: Example of a past years’ sample nomination paper

Nomination papers for town offices are now available for those who are interested in running for elected office in Belmont.

Candidates should stop by the Town Clerk’s office at Town Hall to pick up nomination papers; have your neighbors and friends, who are registered voters of Belmont, sign your nomination papers and submit the signed forms back by the deadline of Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 at 5 p.m.

Office hours of Town Hall for pick up and drop off or questions, no appointment is necessary:

  • Monday: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Friday: 8 a.m. to noon.

Here’s the list of offices that will be filled by the April 5, 2022 Annual Town Election as of December 16, 2021. To find out more about the responsibilities of these offices, please check out their individual web pages on the Town website  https://www.belmont-ma.gov/home/pages/boards-commissions  or watch any public meetings on Zoom or www.belmontmedia.org  

Town-wide Offices        Number of Seats Term of Office 
ModeratorVote for One1 year 
Select BoardVote for One3 years 
Board of AssessorsVote for One3 years 
Board of Cemetery CommissionersVote for One3 years 
Board of HealthVote for One3 years 
Trustees of the Public LibraryVote for Two3 years 
Members of the School CommitteeVote for Two3 years 
Municipal Light BoardVote for Five3 years, 2 years, 1 year 
 Town Meeting Members for
Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8:		Vote for Thirty-six3 years, 2 years, 1 year 
Precincts 3, 4, 5 and 7Vote for Twelve3 years 

What’s Different About 2022? 

  • Town-wide Offices:  In addition to the customary Town-wide offices, (see below for specifics), per the May 3, 2021 vote of the annual Town Meeting, a new elected five-member Municipal Light Board has been created. The full five-member board will be elected in 2022; the two candidates who receive the most votes will win three-year terms, the next two will win two-year terms and the last one will win the one-year term.
  • Representative Town Meeting: The population data from the 2020 Federal Census required Belmont to change some of our voting precinct boundaries to more evenly distribute the residents and the Town Meeting Members who represent them. Per Belmont’s Representative Town Meeting Act, changes of precinct boundaries requires that all 36 seats for Town Meeting in a re-constituted precinct be considered open and must be filled by election.

A. The boundaries of Belmont Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8 have been changed and therefore 36 seats are open and must be filled by election. The 12 candidates who receive the most votes will win three-year terms, the next 12 will win two-year terms and the last 12 will be one-year terms. The six current Town Meeting Members whose precincts will change have already been notified separately.

B. The boundaries of Belmont Precincts 3, 4, 5 and 7, are unchanged by the re-precincting efforts described above,  and will therefore elect the customary 12 Town Meeting Members, each for a  three-year term.  

Running for Re-election to Town Meeting: Precinct 2, 4, 5 and 7 current Town Meeting Members whose term of office expires in 2022 as well as all of the Town Meeting Members current serving in Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8 have already been mailed a letter asking if the person will seek re-election. Deadline for return of the signed response letter to the Town Clerk is absolute: Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 5 p.m.  To confirm whether your current term expires in 2022, please check the Town Clerk’s “Town Meeting Members” web page: https://www.belmont-ma.gov/town-clerk/pages/town-meeting-members

The Town Clerk’s web pages contain quite a bit of information to help make a decision to seek office and running for election at www.belmont-ma.gov  select Town Clerk, then select Running for Elected Office and Campaigning or feel free to call us at 617-993-2603, or email at townclerk@belmont-ma.gov 

Select Board OKs RePrecincting; Changes To Four Precincts Will Impact Town Meeting Terms

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Photo: Town Clerk Ellen Cushman presenting the town’s reprecincting draft before the Select Board

The Belmont Select Board approved a new town precinct map at a special meeting Monday, Oct. 25 resulting in half of the town’s residents with new boundaries for the next town election.

“The point of reprecincting is to balance our population amongst our eight precincts and we will balance the representation of our Town Meeting members,” said Town Clerk Ellen Cushman who heads the town’s Reprecincting Team.

The map and the board’s vote will now go to the state for final acceptance, said Cushman. The new map will go into effect on Dec. 31 and will be used in the 2022 annual Town Election in April.

The changes to four of the town’s eight precinct is in response to 10 percent increase in residents since the 2020 census, now at 27,295. Three precincts – precincts 8, 1 and 6 – will see significant changes while precinct 2 will see a minor addition of a few census blocks. After the rearrangement, each precinct will represent approximately 3,400 residents.

More information on reprecincting can be found here.

The changes will result in all Town Meeting Member positions in the altered precincts to be vacant with 36 open seats for candidates to contend over this coming April. The terms for each of the 36 successful candidates will be determined by a “first across the line” distribution: The first 12 will serve three-year terms, the second 12 serving two years on Town Meeting and the final 12 will have a one-year term.

After consulting with Town Counsel, Cushman said current Members will be considered a candidate for re-election, which will free them from collecting signatures on nomination papers.

The board’s action will not effect the student school districts or zoning areas, said Cushman.

“Wouldn’t it be nice that any redistricting throughout the country was done in such a wonderful, thoughtful and objective way which is not the case,” said Select Board member Mark Paolillo.

On The Move: Half Of Belmont’s Precinct Will See Changes As Part Of Census Reprecincting

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Photo: The proposed new precinct map of Belmont for 2022.

A boost of population from a condo development along Route 2 will require one of the town’s largest residential complexes to “move” into a new home precinct if the Select Board approves a new electoral map as part of the reprecincting of Belmont.

The town’s new precinct map in addition to the hows and whys that led to the four changes to the current chart will be explained at a public meeting to be held on Thursday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. as part of a Zoom Webinar.

In a preview sent to Town Meeting members from Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, the big news from Belmont 10 percent increase in residents since the 2010 US Census will see a pair of precincts “cross” current geographic boundaries to even out the populations in all of Belmont’s precincts as they increase from 3,100 to 3,400 residents.

The town’s Reprecincting Team – made up of Cushman, assistant Town Clerk Meg Piccione, GIS Manager Todd Consentino and the Director of Community Development Glenn Clancy – worked with a proposed map created by the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office with the goal is to balance the population of the precincts to ensure equal representation by Town Meeting Members, while considering the neighborhoods, and geographic dividing lines.

The team’s recommendation to the Select Board on Thursday will be precinct lines for Precinct 1, 2, 6 and 8 would be changed and Precinct 3, 4, 5 and 7 would remain in place.

The current Belmont precinct map with proposed changes in pink.

Precinct 6, which saw a drop in residents in the past decade, will expand north across Washington Street to take a good chunk of Precinct 1 from Long Avenue to Fairmont Street, and Chenery Terrace, a small part of Bow Road, all of Lincoln Street, a small part of Washington Street and Goden Street to Long Avenue. The shift also includes all of Road, Cedar Road, Lambert Road, Highland Avenue and Lincoln Circle.

With the inclusion of the Acorn Park Drive and its transitory population, Precinct 8 will see three parcels leaving – two smaller parts moving to Precinct 2 – with the largest portion going to Precinct 1 as it will cross the commuter rail tracks north to appropriate the Hill Estate which includes Vale Road, Hill Road and Pond Street, Yerxa Road and Bailey Road.

The largest practical change for Town Meeting is that members in precincts that have change will require the entire group of Town Meeting seats must be elected to represent the newly-drawn precinct. For Belmont that equates to a massive 36 seats open for election per those precincts at the 2022 Town Election on April 5.

Thirty six people will be elected in each of the precincts to three, two and one year terms determined as follows: the 12 candidates with the highest number of votes will be elected for the three-year term seats, the next group of 12 winning candidates will be elected to the two-year term seats and the final group of 12 winning candidates will be elected to the one-year term seats.  

Once the Town Clerk and the State are satisfied with their joint draft map of the precincts, Cushman will review the proposed draft with the Select Board at its Oct. 18 meeting which must vote at its Oct. 25 meeting to approve the final map and legal descriptions for official submission to the Commonwealth by Oct. 30.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

When: Oct 14, 2021 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

Passcode: 407802

Or One tap mobile : 

    US: +13126266799,,83908658063#  or +19292056099,,83908658063#

Or Telephone:

    Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

        US: +1 312 626 6799  or +1 929 205 6099  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782

Webinar ID: 839 0865 8063

    International numbers available:https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcbGQLdhV4