By Wiley Wood

Close to 80 percent of Norfolk voters are likely to vote in the municipal election on Tuesday, November 5. But only a small fraction, according to Town Clerk Linda Perkins, are likely to read the instructions on the back of the ballot. It’s too bad, says Perkins, because lots of people make mistakes.

How the candidates’ names are assigned their places on the ballot is not widely understood. By statute, if there are any positions for which more than one candidate will be nominated, Perkins must schedule a ceremony several months before the election at which the registrars of voters will draw the names of their party’s candidates out of a hat to determine their order on the ballot.

For the Board of Education positions, for instance, where four candidates will be elected, there are four boxes on the Democratic party row and four boxes on the Republican. For each party’s drawing, four slips of paper will go into the hat, some blank and some with candidates’ names. These will then be drawn from the hat by the appropriate registrar, and the order will be recorded. That is the order in which the names and the blanks will appear on the ballot.

The ceremony is public, and notice is given at least five days before the event is held. This year’s ballot ceremony occurred in August.

When asked whose hat is used, Perkins explains that the custom in Norfolk is more generally to put the slips of paper in a bowl or basket.