Voters in Plympton, Halifax, and Kingston have more contested races on Tuesday’s ballot than many South Shore neighbors. Every voter in the three towns has a contested state House race. Kingston and Plympton voters also have a contested state Senate race. Halifax voters have a contested Governor’s Council race. Everyone has a Plymouth County commissioner race and nine statewide ballot questions.
Halifax voters should check their precinct first. The town is split between two House districts, so neighbors may see different names for state representative.
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Early in-person voting continues through Friday, Oct. 30; check with your town clerk for hours. Voters who still have a mail ballot at home should return it to the town’s drop box or the town clerk’s office rather than mail it this late, the Secretary of the Commonwealth recommends. To see your own ballot, use the Secretary’s lookup at sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA.
On the ballot: all of Kingston and Plympton, and Halifax precincts 1 and 2A, plus parts of Pembroke, Plymouth, and Middleborough. Rep. Kathleen LaNatra of Kingston, the Democratic incumbent, faces Republican Eric Meschino of Plymouth.
LaNatra says she has represented the district for eight years. Meschino is a commercial lobster fisherman who previously worked in financial services.
Taxes dominated their Oct. 19 forum on WATD. Asked whether the state could cut taxes and keep services, LaNatra said, “The quick answer on that is no,” and pointed to a tax relief package she said delivers “roughly $1 billion a year.” Meschino said, “Of course, we can cut taxes.” He called for ending property taxes for seniors whose homes are paid off, eliminating the millionaire’s tax and charges on energy bills, and pursuing an audit of the Legislature.
On housing, LaNatra said the MBTA Communities law “wasn’t rolled out correctly.” She said Halifax, which hasn’t adopted a compliant zone, drew its zoning overlay over the already-built Twin Lakes neighborhood and is now ineligible for some grants. Meschino said the state overrode town-approved bylaws “with a very heavy hand.” LaNatra pointed to Kingston’s affordable housing trust as a model.
On the ballot: Halifax precinct 2, plus Duxbury and most of Pembroke. Rep. Kenneth Sweezey of Duxbury, the Republican incumbent, faces Democrat Jessica Bradley Rushing of Pembroke.
Halifax came up at their WATD forum. Rushing, who is an Army veteran and former Pembroke Select Board member, said Halifax is the only town in the district she believes is out of compliance with the MBTA Communities law, leaving it ineligible for state grants. Sweezey, who opposes the law, said Halifax already has a right to its money and that his job is to tell Beacon Hill it is wrong. The attorney general sued Halifax over the law in January.
The sharpest exchange was over the state budget. Rushing said the district lost earmarks because Sweezey voted against the budget both years. Sweezey called that untrue and said he would not “vote to approve the very system that is underfunding Chapter 70.”
On the ballot: Kingston and Plympton, plus Pembroke, Plymouth, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. Sen. Dylan Fernandes of Falmouth, the Democratic incumbent, faces Republican Kari MacRae of Bourne.
Fernandes is in his first Senate term after eight years in the House. At their September forum, both said Pilgrim’s wastewater should stay out of Cape Cod Bay and that the state’s local aid formula shortchanges the district. They split on taxes, spending and immigration. MacRae framed the race around “affordability, accountability, and safety.” Fernandes pointed to the tax relief package he supported, including a higher estate tax threshold.
Halifax is in a different Senate district, where Sen. Michael Brady of Brockton is unopposed.
Governor’s Council, 2nd District (Halifax only) Councillor Tamisha Civil of Stoughton, the Democratic incumbent, faces Republican Francis Crimmins, also of Stoughton.
Kingston and Plympton are in the 1st District, where Councillor Joseph Ferreira is unopposed. The council confirms judges and votes on pardons.
The Plymouth County Commissioner seat is open. Democrat Rhonda Nyman of Hanover faces Republican Anthony O’Brien of Pembroke.
O’Brien, who says he served as a commissioner from 2009 to 2013, beat Commissioner Sandra Wright in the September Republican primary. Nyman is a former state representative for Hanover, Norwell, and Rockland and Select Board member in Hanover. At their October forum, both called the commissioners’ recent hiring of a county administrator flawed.
Plymouth County’s other offices are uncontested: District Attorney Timothy Cruz, Treasurer Thomas O’Brien (not the commissioner candidate), and Register of Probate Matthew McDonough.
All three towns are in the 9th Congressional District, where Rep. Bill Keating of Bourne, a Democrat, faces Republican R. Tyler MacAllister of Mattapoisett.
For governor, Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Democrats, face Republicans Mike Minogue and Shawn Oliver and independents Andrea James and Kayla Kittredge. Oliver suspended his campaign after his Oct. 17 arrest in New Bedford on charges including operating under the influence; he has pleaded not guilty. His name remains on the ballot, and Minogue says he’ll ask him to resign if elected.
Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat, faces Republican John Deaton, independent Shiva Ayyadurai and Joe Tache of the Socialism and Liberation Party. Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Secretary William Galvin, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, and Auditor Diana DiZoglio, all Democrats, also face challengers.
The nine ballot questions:
1. Public records. Yes puts the Legislature and governor’s office under the public records law that every town already follows. Top donor: Auditor DiZoglio’s campaign committee, $150,000. No organized opposition.
2. Public defender union. Yes lets staff of the state’s public defender agency unionize; it does not affect the private lawyers who take most court appointments. Funded almost entirely by two unions, NAGE and SEIU Local 888, about $540,000 each. No organized opposition.
3. All-party primaries. Yes replaces party primaries with one primary open to all candidates, starting in 2028, with the top two advancing. Both state parties oppose it, but former governors Charlie Baker (R) and Deval Patrick (D) support it. The Yes side has raised about $6.9 million, led by $500,000 each from Andrew Balson, David Peeler, and Joshua Bekenstein.
4. Election Day registration. Yes lets residents register and vote at the polls on Election Day, starting in 2028. Secretary Galvin filed it, and his campaign committee is its top donor at $79,000. No organized opposition.
5. State tax cap and rebates. Yes resets the state’s revenue cap each year, likely triggering rebates more often; the state budget office says it would reduce money available for local aid. Top Yes support: $1.9 million in signature-gathering from a business group that does not disclose donors. Top No donor: the SEIU State Council, $250,000.
6. Conservation fund. Yes directs existing sales tax collected by sporting goods stores, RV dealers and golf courses toward land and water conservation, assuming the Legislature appropriates it. Its first stated purpose is protecting drinking water; the Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer lies beneath Kingston and Plympton. Top donor: Kirsten Waerstad of Belmont, $800,000.
7. Starter homes. Yes bars towns from requiring more than 5,000 square feet for a single-family home, but only on lots with public water and sewer. State maps show almost no public sewer in Halifax or Plympton and about a third of Kingston, so its local effect would be limited. Top donor: the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and its PAC, $500,000.
8. Marijuana repeal. Yes ends licensed recreational sales on Jan. 1, 2028, and ends home growing. Kingston has one dispensary and Halifax two; both collect the 3% local marijuana tax that repeal would end. SAM Action, a Virginia group, has supplied nearly all of the $3.78 million behind repeal.
9. The 2024 gun law. Yes keeps the law; No repeals it. The law set an Oct. 28 deadline to register firearms, regulates “ghost guns” and expands the red flag law. A repeal would take effect about 30 days after the election. The Massachusetts Teachers Association has given $500,000 to keep it; repeal’s largest donors include Smith & Wesson and Jeffrey Freudberg of Newton, $50,000 each, and the Old Colony Sportsmen’s Association of Pembroke, $21,933.
Disclosure
The author serves on the Whitman Select Board and, in that capacity, has endorsed Yes on Question 7, Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll, Tamisha Civil, and Rhonda Nyman.

HALIFAX — The Select Board on Oct. 13 approved a $10 increase to the town’s curbside trash and recycling fee. The annual charge rises to $450, and the optional second bin goes to $280.
The board also scheduled a special town meeting for Jan. 12. After a lengthy debate, it voted 3-0 to let Democratic Town Committee leaders host a one-hour, nonpartisan get-out-the-vote booth on town property, with conditions.
Chair Thomas Pratt presented the new rates. The $450 fee covers weekly trash pickup, recycling every other week and access to the recycling center. It is billed in two $225 installments, in October and April. The second bin rises from $270 to $280 and is billed $140 per installment.
Pratt said the 14% interest on late bills and the $15 demand fee will not change. The demand fee was raised from $10 last year.
Pratt said the town’s rates remain much lower than private haulers. Jonathan Selig urged residents to compare prices themselves. He said the cart-based program turned around a bag program that had been losing money, and he called the $10 increase modest.
The longest discussion of the night involved two co-chairs of the Democratic Town Committee, Sam Cox and Ellen Snoeyenbos. They asked to set up a pop-up tent from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. That was the first day of early voting and part of a national get-out-the-vote day.
They planned to bring: a sign encouraging people to vote early, a list of early-voting hours in area towns, and a laptop with a hotspot so residents could check their registration.
They said four or five people would attend. There would be no campaign signs, shirts or buttons. They also said they would stay more than 150 feet from Town Hall, the early-voting site.
Pratt said he would be more comfortable if both parties were represented.
“The tricky part here is that it’s a town-owned property that’s being asked to be incorporated into the display,” Pratt said.
Selig praised the organizers’ work in the community. He also said they are publicly identified with one party, and he proposed requiring formal notice to the Republican Town Committee. The organizers said they had not contacted Republicans because they were waiting for the board’s permission. They said anyone was welcome to join. Snoeyenbos said that, as residents, they should not be denied the chance to speak.
Pratt said four days’ notice did not change his view. He asked whether the event could move to Oct. 24. The organizers said it was tied to the national date.
The board approved the event on town property near the library. The approval required the Select Board’s office to send the Republican Town Committee notice and contact information.
The special town meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12. Pratt said moving it from the fall into the new year avoids conflicts with the holiday season and allows time to certify free cash.
The warrant opened Oct. 13 and closes Thursday, Nov. 5. The agenda had listed Nov. 3, which is Election Day.
Pratt read aloud a complaint filed by Patrick Higgins about the board’s Sept. 22 meeting. The complaint raised two issues: The agenda did not identify the pending lawsuit the board would discuss in executive session and the revised agenda did not note when the original had been posted.
Pratt said the first omission was his error as chair. He said he has since taken a 90-minute refresher course on the open meeting law.
“This was obviously not with malice in the heart or intentional form, but it did happen. So we have to be better on that,” Pratt said.
Interim Town Administrator Darleen Sullivan said the second issue caused no harm because both agendas remained posted online. The board voted unanimously to have legal counsel send the complainant a letter.
The Oct. 13 agenda named the lawsuit for that night’s executive session: Attorney General v. Town of Dracut et al., in Suffolk Superior Court. Pratt read the case name aloud before the board went into closed session.
The board appointed Nicholas Clark, a Silver Lake graduate, as a patrol officer. Deputy Chief Ted Benner said Clark was the top candidate among eight people interviewed from about 20 applicants. The department plans to send him to the full-time police academy in January.

Plympton’s free cash was certified by the state the day before the Sept. 29 Board of Selectmen meeting, but Town Accountant Lisa Hart told the board the number is lower than it used to be and that several items will pull on it further. Two old accounts are in deficits that will have to be written off. A new $9,200 bill for the town’s financial software was never budgeted. Fees that once flowed to free cash are now going into a police revolving account instead.
Hart opened the 28-minute afternoon meeting with an update on the year-end close and the town’s switch to new accounting software. She handed the board the state’s free cash certification, which Chairman Nathaniel Sides said had arrived “hot off the presses yesterday.”
Hart said the town is getting free cash certified faster than it used to. “It would be nice if the amount was high like it used to be,” she said, adding that the town tends to spend more, which leaves less behind. Records from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue list the certified free cash at $215,376.
Sides asked about roughly $250,000 in real estate taxes still listed as receivable. The accountant said that figure is “fairly average” for the town.
Hart pointed the board to two balances she said the town will not recover. The first is a water infrastructure grant account that was overspent and has carried a deficit for a couple of years. “That’s going to need to be written off somewhere,” she said. “So, we will need to find a place to get funds for that.”
The second is the town’s old police detail account. She said its unpaid invoices are now more than two years old and are unlikely to be collected. A few years ago, she said, the town opened a new detail account to start fresh. That account also tends to run a deficit, but revenue that comes in through September can be applied against it, so it usually clears within about three months. She said the detail accounts should be tracked more carefully. As long as the old deficits stay on the books, she said, they affect the town’s cash.
Two school grant accounts, Title IV and IDEA, show about $11,000 in deficit, but she said those are not true deficits. They are reimbursement grants: the schools spend the money first and then draw down the funds. Hart said communication with the schools about those drawdowns “has been very poor.” She has met with school officials and asked them to send copies of their grants and to draw down funds by the end of July so the balances do not affect free cash.
A police grant through SEMLEC, the regional law enforcement council, has also been in deficit for some time. She said she has asked the police department to find out whether more grant money is coming or whether the gap must be covered from another source.
Sides asked whether a surplus anywhere in the police accounts could offset the deficits. Hart said the department’s revolving account for vehicle fees does hold extra money. She said administrative fees are now also being deposited there, and she does not know whether town meeting ever voted to allow that. The revolving fund was set up for vehicle fees, she said, and she has not seen anything spent from it.
Hart told the board those administrative fees used to go into the town’s general revenue and end up in free cash. With the change, she said, the town will get less free cash.
Sides, drawing on his time on the Finance Committee, said he believes the administrative fees pay for about three extra hours a week for a police department staff member, rather than adding those hours to the salary line. He said it would be “cleaner” to put the cost in the salary line and return the fees to general revenue, and that the board should take that up with the Finance Committee. Hart agreed. “I would feel better with it that way,” she said.
The town moved this year to the VADAR financial software system after its longtime vendor, CDS, stopped offering municipal financial services. The accountant said the first VADAR invoice, for $9,200, should arrive soon. “We need to figure out where that money is coming from,” she said. “That was not budgeted.”
Sides recalled that the cost came up during budget season and suggested it may have been planned for the technology line. Administrative Assistant Briggette Martins asked who would process the payment. Sides said the accountant’s office should handle the warrant, but that the funding source should be confirmed with Town Administrator Bob Fennessy.
Hart said she is fully comfortable processing and posting warrants in the new system but has not yet started the monthly budget reports she used to send each department. Under the old system, she said, she could email all of them at once. Now she will have to print and deliver each one. She plans to start with the largest departments and any department spending ahead of pace, and hopes to have those reports out by Oct. 15 and no later than the end of October.
She is also working on three year-end reports due to the Department of Revenue: the balance sheet, the Schedule A, and the tax rate. She said the town hopes to set the tax rate by mid-November to avoid the December rush at the state.
Asked by Sides whether VADAR will eventually make the job easier, Hart was candid. “Right now it does not feel like it’s saving me any time,” she said. She expects it will take about a year to be fully up to speed. She added that the Treasurer-Collector’s contract with the new payroll vendor, Harpers, covers preparing the town’s 1099 tax forms, which VADAR does not do, and that the two offices are gathering quotes for that work.
“Everyone’s aware of the fiscal difficulties we’re going to face this year,” Sides said. “So any information you can provide us to help us make some decisions would certainly be helpful.”
The board also approved the warrant for the Nov. 3 state election. Voting will take place in the Deborah Sampson Meeting Room at the Town House, 5 Palmer Rd., from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Along with nine statewide ballot questions, the ballot includes U.S. senator; governor and lieutenant governor; attorney general; secretary of state; treasurer; auditor; U.S. representative for the 9th Congressional District; governor’s councilor for the First District; state senator for the Plymouth and Barnstable District; state representative for the 12th Plymouth District; Plymouth District attorney; Plymouth County register of probate; Plymouth County commissioner; and Plymouth County treasurer.
The item was listed as a ratification, but a town official told the board it was an original vote. The board had approved early voting hours months earlier, she said, but had not yet voted on the election warrant itself.