If you’re not one of the hundreds of Franklin County voters who are likely to have cast early ballots over the past couple of weeks, now’s your chance.
As if this year’s whopper of a presidential election weren’t enough to woo prospective voters, the ballot has some important choices to be decided — especially for voters in the 12 Franklin County towns in the First Congressional District and the state Senate district within it.
A three-way race for that Congressional seat, with longtime incumbent Springfield Democrat Richard E. Neal facing challenges from Shelburne Libertarian Thomas T. Simmons and Springfield independent Frederick O. Mayock, will face voters in Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Conway, Hawley, Heath, Leyden, Monroe, Rowe and Shelburne.
Second Congressional District voters in the remaining Franklin County towns will find incumbent Democrat James P. McGovern of Worcester running unopposed for an 11th term.
Voters in Ashfield, Conway, Shelburne, Buckland, Charlemont, Hawley, Heath, Rowe and Monroe are also facing a choice for a state Senator to fill the two-year vacancy being left by 10-year incumbent Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield. There, Democrat Adam G. Hinds of Pittsfield and Republican Christine M. Canning of Lanesborough.
Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, who has served in the Senate since 1991 and has been Senate president since 2015, faces a challenge from Republican Donald Peltier of South Hadley. In Franklin County, the district includes Bernardston,Colrain,, Deerfield, Erving,Gill, Greenfield, Leverett, Leyden, Montague, New Salem Northfield, Orange,, Shutesbury, Sunderland, Warwick, Wendell and Whately.
Four ballot questions will also face voters:
• Question 1 would allow a second slots parlor to exist in Massachusetts beyond the one allowed under the state’s 2011 gambling law, and is tied to a site in East Boston.
• Question 2 would lift the state’s cap on charter schools to allow up to 12 new charter schools or expansions of existing charter schools each year.
• Question 3 would prohibit confinement of pigs, calves, and hens that prevents lying down, standing, fully extending limbs or turning around freely.
• Question 4 would legalize possession, use, and transfer of marijuana and products containing marijuana concentrate, and to cultivate marijuana, and would provide for regulation and taxation of commercial sale of marijuana and marijuana products.
There are also a pair of three-way races for two four-year posts for Northfield and Warwick representation on the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee. Northfield incumbents Patricia Shearer and Robin L’Etoile, along with Robert Leighton, are vying for two seats from that town, and Warwick incumbents J. David Young and David Shoemaker, along with newcomer Charles Lisowski, are competing for two seats from their town. There are no contests for two Bernardston seats and a Leyden seat.
Election for all other posts — for state legislators and for Franklin County sheriff — features incumbents who, like McGovern, are running unopposed: Reps. Paul Mark of Peru, Stephen Kulik of Worthington and Susannah Whipps Lee of Athol, and Sheriff Christopher Donelan of Orange.
Also running unopposed are Jay D. DiPucchio of Turners Falls for Franklin Regional Council of Governments Executive Committee and Democrat Mary E. Hurley of East Longmeadow for Governors Council.
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You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 269