Board of Registrars

City of Chicopee, Massachusetts Registrars of Voters City Hall Annex – 274 Front Street – Chicopee, MA 01013 Tel: (413) 594-1550 Fax: (413) 594-1554 e-mail jsurdyka@chicopeema.gov Janina Surdyka Registrar (copy of the minutes of the meeting held on February 26, 2018) Edward Rybak, Acting Chairman of the Board of Registrars, called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. Present: Alfred W. Kendall, Edward A. Rybak and Janina Surdyka. Absent: Jacqueline A. DuBois Minutes of the January 12, 2018 meeting were reviewed and approved as presented by the Clerk. Correspondence: - Election Division – State Primary Nomination Papers - US Census Bureau – 2020 Local Update of Census Addresses - Auditing Department – Fiscal 2019 Budget Preparation - Passport Services – Increase of the Passport Acceptance Fee to $35.00 Motion was made by Mr. Rybak, seconded by Mr. Kendall and unanimously approved to provide assistance to the US Census Bureau in the 2020 Phase 2 – Updating Address List. On the motion of Mr. Rybak the members of the Board were in agreement to refer FY 2019 Department’s Budget to New Business. Clerk’s Report: The following Nomination Papers have been submitted to the Department and have their signatures verified: Name/Party Affiliation Office District # of Nom. # of # of Valid Papers Signatures Signatures R - Charles D. Baker Governor Statewide 3 30 24 R - Karyn E. Polito Lt. Governor Statewide 3 28 23 D - Donald E. Ashe Register of Deeds Hampden 4 62 48 D - Laura S. Gentile Clerk of Courts Hampden 8 42 39 D - Elizabeth E. Warren Senator in Congress MA 3 21 21 Registration statistics (including address and party affiliation changes) for the month of January are as follows: Registered in the office 28 Received from the RMV 273 Registered by mail 33 Registered at public-assistance agencies 18 Registered online 7 Received from other City/Town Halls 3 Deleted from voter registration roll (moved, died or in 171 response to confirmation notice) Since July 1, 2017 the Department collected $15,411.90 from passport applications and spent $13,526.26 for cross-cut shredder, photo ink and paper, priority postage, 2 reams of business paper, staples, metric ruler, calendars and recyclable bags for shredder. Additionally $11,000.00 was transferred to Special Services Account. The present balance of this account is $140,293.98. Motion was made, seconded, and unanimously approved to accept the Clerk’s report as presented and to refer Nomination Papers to New Business. Old Business: Clerk of the Board expressed her gratitude to two volunteers from the Senior Tax Work-off Program for opening and sorting thousands of 2018 Census questionnaires. New Business: - On the motion by Ms. Surdyka, seconded by Mr. Rybak, the members of the Board agreed to extend conducting of the Annual City Census until the end of March. - Motion was made by Mr. Kendall, seconded by Mr. Rybak and carried to certify Nomination Papers as presented in Clerk’s Report. - Motion was made by Mr. Rybak, seconded by Mr. Kendall, to submit level funded FY19 Department budget with exception of increase of $1,000.00 in Overtime and $800.00 in Printing and Binding due to increased voters’ activity for State Election, pre-registration of 16 year olds and early voting. - Members of the Board considered proposed voter registration changes: Automatic Voter Registration and Election Day Registration. Registrars were in favor of making voter registration process as convenient as possible to ensure that every eligible citizen is registered to vote. They just want to make sure that the information the office receives is valid since presently there are problems with voter registrations received from various State Agencies including non-residential addresses, duplicate records, lack of apartment numbers, missing mailing addresses, missing proof of citizenship. - The letter will be sent to Mayor Kos in support of re-appointment of Mr. Rybak as a member of the Board of Registrars for Democratic Party for another 4-year term. Board’s Annual meeting is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on April 2. Meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Janina Surdyka, Clerk of the Board