After special election, what comes next?

With two new Select Board positions set for May’s annual town election, two major questions remain unanswered.

First, will town staff be affected by more board members? Second, in a town with currently low voter engagement and few contested races, will more positions galvanize residents to participate in Weston’s civic life?

The effect on town staff

With the introduction of two additional Select Board members, it’s expected that the town manager’s office will spend a little more time communicating with board members to ensure they are up to date on issues.

Town Manager Leon Gaumond said “any Select Board member who does their job and wants to be educated will have regular communication with members of staff, mainly through the town manager.” He does not believe it will be too much extra work for his office, even if three Select Board members with no prior experience are elected.

“I might spend a little bit more time bringing the new members up to speed; that’s just the reality,” he said. “Do I anticipate this being an unbearable burden? No, I don’t.”

He added he is not planning on any “dramatic changes” for his office, but it will be an “adjustment period” once the new members are elected.

Other communities have expanded their boards, and their experiences adjusting to the change can serve as a preview.

One example is the town of Sharon, population 18,000, which elected its inaugural five-member board in May 2025. Select Board Chair Kiana Baskin said there is a “learning curve” for town staff and board members.

“I spend considerably more time working with the town administrator’s office than I did when the board had three members,” Baskin said. “This expansion has also increased the workload for the town administrator’s office, as staff must ensure that all five members are fully informed, aligned and able to conduct appropriate due diligence through meetings and briefings with the town administrator.”

Resident participation in elections and government

Election turnout in small towns is always a challenge, even more so when it is a special election.

Weston’s special election saw 9.79% of the town’s 8,653 registered voters participate. Special elections typically draw fewer voters than annual elections, unless the issue is a controversial topic. Town Clerk Janet Murphy said voter turnout was in line with prior special elections.

Still, Weston’s annual town elections do not draw many voters either, with turnout averaging 12.63% since 2014. Last May’s 2.8% turnout was the lowest in at least a decade, while the 2020 town election drew the highest turnout, with 29.37% of voters heading to the polls.

Many municipalities around Massachusetts struggle to inspire voter participation. Although in the immediate area, average voter turnout from 2019 to 2025 is slightly higher than in Weston, hovering around 20%, according to data collected from election results.

Wellesley leads in participation with an average voter turnout of 26%, followed by Lexington at 24% and Lincoln and Sudbury at 19%. Waltham, a city with biennial elections, has averaged 27% in its last four elections dating back to 2019.

Low engagement with town government is also a concern cited by the Town Governance Study Committee, which found fewer than half, about 45%, of the Select Board races between 2014 and 2025 were contested.

Select Board Chair Lise Revers, who was a proponent of the expansion, said it was a solid turnout considering that it was a January election centered around a topic residents had already approved twice at Town Meeting.

She added the topic inspired “energizing” debate and that she believes it will carry over into the annual town election.

“I have already spoken with a number of persons interested in running for the open positions on the Select Board and I believe we are going to have a robust election,” Revers said. “The competitiveness of this election will be quite different from many of the previous elections where a known individual was essentially hand-picked and endorsed by the current Select Board members. I think it will be a refreshing exercise in democracy and I’m excited to see who throws their hat in the ring.”

While the town continues to be challenged by this issue, it isn’t for a lack of trying. Gaumond said he holds office hours at the Council on Aging, records a Select Board Rewind podcast highlighting developments from each meeting, appears in Weston Media Center’s Under the Cupola series with town officials and board members and he just recently launched a town newsletter. On top of that, he added the town is pushing social media in an effort to cover every avenue possible.

“We have to be creative in finding new ways to get information out,” he said. “It’s never going to be a perfect thing, but what I’m trying to get away from is, ‘I never heard about it.’”