Sudbury Select Board declines to opt out of mail-in voting for spring election

SUDBURY — November 14, 2023 — Sudbury Select Board signals it will keep mail-in voting and previews a $462,000 FY25 budget gap. Four of five board members told Town Clerk Beth Klein on Nov. 14 they would not support her recommendation to opt out of mail-in voting for the March 25, 2024 annual town election, which falls 19 days after the presidential primary. Klein warned the compressed timeline created "a real issue for mistakes," but Member Lisa Kouchakdjian said "we need to make voting flexible" and Member Charles Russo said the vote-by-mail "genie is kind of out of the bottle." Last year, 1,320 of 3,353 town election votes — 39 percent — came by mail. The board separately heard a financial forecast projecting the FY24 operating budget of $115.7 million growing to $121.4 million in FY25, with deficits of $462,000 in FY25 and $832,000 in FY26 if cost centers received 3 percent guidance. Education accounts for 63 percent of spending; free cash sits at about $2.5 million after fall Town Meeting.