Deadline To Run In Brookline 2023 Election Coming Up

BROOKLINE, MA – Annual town elections in Brookline are just around the corner, with the roster of candidates growing and the deadline to submit nomination papers fast approaching.

The Town Clerk on Friday reported that 145 sets of papers have been taken out in different offices to sign up to run for various positions throughout the Town such as Select Board, Library Trustee, School Committee, Housing Commissioner, and Town Meeting.

Candidates interested in running for office need to collect 50 signatures from registered voters in Brookline and have until 5 p.m. on March 14 to submit nomination papers, which are available in the Town Clerk’s office. Candidates must be a registered voter in the town that they are running in to submit a nomination.

To be eligible for Town Meeting Member, candidates have to be registered voters in their specific precinct, and have to collect 10 signatures from registered voters in that precinct. If you are an incumbent Town Meeting member, instead of having to collect signatures, you can send a letter to the town clerk's office asking to be placed on the ballot.

There are exactly 100 seats on the ballot for this election:

• 88 Town Meeting seats, with vacancies in Precincts 7, 13, 14;
• Two Select Board seats;
• Four Library Trustee seats (for 3 year terms), and one vacancy for a yearlong term seat;
• Three School Committee seats for the four year term, and one seat for a yearlong term;
• One seat for the Housing Authority

Those who are elected on May 2 will help to pass local laws, approve the Town’s budget, improve schools and libraries, and debate issues important to the Town.

Here are the candidates who had pulled papers and returned papers as of Friday. An (i) indicates an incumbent, a * indicates a candidate has returned filing papers:

Select Board - 3 year term

• John VanScoyoc (i)*
• Jesse Gray
• Paul Warren
• Arden Reamer

Trustees of the Public Library - 3 year term

• Chris Chanyasulkit (i)*
• Lori Cawthome (i)*
• Karen Livingston (i)*
• Jonathan Margolis (i)*
• Judith Goleman

Trustees of the Public Library - 1 year term

• Judith Goleman

School Committee - 3 year term

• Suzanne Federspiel (i)*
• Andy Liu (i)*
• Mariah C. Nobrega (i)*
• Christopher Mutty

School Committee - 1 year term

• Christopher Mutty
• Natalia Linos
• Vinay Giowaney

Housing Authority - 5 year term

• Susan C. Cohen (i)*

This election is also the first town election held under the new Votes Act, which gives voters expanded access to voting through mail in voting and early voting, said Town Clerk Ben Kaufman.

“Anybody can get a ballot by mail. It's also going to be the first town election with early voting, and we are actually going to be expanding our early voting to include multiple locations in town,” said Kaufman.

In terms of ballot questions, Kaufman said voters can expect “a very interesting election in terms of ballot questions.”

“We're going to have some Proposition 2 ½ override and exclusions ballot question, a ballot question about marijuana, so there's going to be a very interesting and in many ways complex ballot,” he said.

The Town Clerk's Office will send out information to every voter with information about those ballot questions, letting them know what the ballot questions are about so they can be as informed as possible.