LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Voters will not be able to cast ballots early by mail but can they can still request an absentee ballot for the town election.

Last week, Clerk Ruth Knysh asked the Select Board to opt out of early voting by mail for municipal elections. Her request came after the state expanded access last year.

"An act passed to allow early voting by mail for local elections. It used to be just state and federal," she said. "So my thought on that is it's not in my budget, it's a lot of extra work added on me. I'm only one person in there."

Knysh explained that all of the mail-in ballots would have to be opened and processed by herself before being checked against signatures in the state computer.

"It's a process and the local elections are not well participated in," she said. "I'm just worried that if that is an option to vote by mail, we're going to get hundreds of people that don't typically vote wanting to vote by mail because they can."

The Select Board accepted the request, understanding the nature of Knysh's concern. The board also approved her request to have a police officer at the polling location for every election to "preserve order and protect the election officers." This also is now required by the state.

Nomination papers became available on March 1 and the last day to submit them is May 1. The last day to apply for an absentee ballot is June 12 ahead of the town election on June 20.

So far, incumbent Michael Murphy is being challenged by Barbara Davis-Hassan and Deborah Maynard for a three-year seat on the Select Board. 

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