Pittsfield Clerks Office Tests Ballots Ahead of Preliminary Election

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City clerk's office is preparing for a seamless election by testing all of the voting equipment.

On Tuesday, City Clerk Michele Benjamin, Assistant Clerk Heather Brazeau and Registrar of Voters Clerk Joshua Munn tested the ward and precinct ballot machines. The city has seven wards with each having a Precinct A and B.

For Benjamin, this election is protocol as usual.

"It's the same thing all the time," she said. "We don't do anything different."

The state requires that all machines be tested before they are sent out to the polls. Zero tapes are run to prove that there is no data on the storage cards and 50 test ballots are run through.

"Then we zero it. We set it back to zero and we put a security tab in here and we pack them away," Benjamin said while giving iBerkshires a walk-through of the process.

"They are stored in the vault until they go to the polls on election day with a police officer and the warden, when they get there, they get the machine all ready, they plug it in, they have it on the ballot box and then they verify that it says zero."

Pittsfield residents will trim the ballot for the mayoral, Ward 2 and Ward 7 races in a preliminary election on Sept. 19.

And in Ward 7, incumbent Anthony Maffuccio is being challenged by Jonathan Morey and Rhonda Serre.

The other races did not meet the criteria for a preliminary.

Assistant Clerk of Registrations and Elections Ashley Gangell reported that they have mostly all of the election worker spots filled but could use a few more inspectors.

"We should be all good for election day," she said.

The last day to register to vote for the preliminary election is Sept. 9. The general election is on Nov. 7.

Progressives March for Human Rights in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:55AM / Sunday, January 19, 2025

Amelia Gilardi addresses the crowd at Park Square. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Around 100 people marched down North Street on Saturday in support of human rights. 

 

The Pittsfield People's March was designed to unite community members, raise awareness, and promote the fundamental rights of all people. It was one of numerous marches across the nation, including in Boston and the annual one (formerly the Women's March) in Washington, D.C. 

 

The marches started in 2017 in response to the first election of Donald Trump, who is set to sworn in for a second term on Monday. Saturday's marchers expressed their fears that the incoming administration will place money and power over the needs of the people. 

 

"For me, the motivation of this march was to make people see that we are all feeling similarly, that we are not isolated in our feelings, and that your neighbor feels like that, too," said march organizer Meg Arvin of Western MA 4 the Future.

 

"So one, it's not just you thinking this way, and two, you have other people that you can lean on to build that community with to feel like you are not in this by yourself and that you have other people who will be here to support you."

 

The first march, and its successors, have focused on fears of rights being chipped away, including women's bodily rights, free speech rights, voting rights and civil rights. The first Washington march drew nearly 500,000; Saturday's was estimated at 5,000.

 

Arvin, who moved from Tennessee a few years ago, said she comes from a state where rights have been taken away and knows what it looks like for people to be desperate for representation.