Board of Aldermen 11-13-2018 Page 3
Next Madam President | wanted to mention the election day; as usual Ms. Piecuch, City Clerk and her staff
did a very good job on a pretty hectic day. We did have problems in Wards 3 and 8, especially Ward 3,
Trish was over there until 1:00 in the morning. That is unusual. A lot of the problems were caused by the
machines which had trouble with the two ballots which were often fed into the machines at the same time
and they jammed a lot. That was a major cause of the delay in those two Wards.
What | wanted to communicate to you is that the City is not free to replace those machines. Those
machines were bought like 25 years ago, we can only buy machines that are approved by the State Ballot
Law Commission. Right now that is the standard, those machines are the only ones that are approved by
the Ballot Law Commission. They are obsolete, they are hard to get parts, they can jam and are there better
machines out there? Definitely, there are other choices that would be much better now and | think we want
in Nashua to be able to deliver results as quickly as we can after a long day in the polls, 14 hours. And
certainly if another generation of machines gets approved by the Ballot Law Commission, | will suggest and |
think you will agree we should go forward and buy the new generation of machines. But it takes action by
the Secretary of State and the Ballot Law Commission to approve an improved machine before we can
purchase it. So until that happens, by State Law, we are stuck with what we have even though we know
they are obsolete.
| just wanted you to let you know that we are aware of the problems. Any human error that occurred, we will
try to work that out. But the delay caused by the technology was at least in part imposed on us by failure of
the State Ballot Law Commission to act with respect to the approval of better machines
Next Madam President | wanted to mention that the Senior Outing is Sunday, noon at the Marriot. Many of
our members are new and maybe not have gone to this, but the City puts on a Senior Lunch for any senior
citizens in the City who want to go, it is usually attended by several hundred Nashua seniors. It is really a
good time, everyone here is invited, all Aldermen are invited. Often Madam President has gone frequently,
the main person on the Board of the Aldermen who has been working on this for many years is Alderman
Caron who has attended for 40 some years for a long time as the Director of Park & Recs; now as a
member of Board of Aldermen who is most involved with this.
It has occurred to me that we should rename the lunch, the “June Caron Lunch’ just because of that but we
haven't officially done that yet, although unofficially we probably have. So you will see June there, you will
see me and anybody who wants to come, | would encourage you to do so.
Finally, Madam President, | wanted to congratulate you and Alderman O’Brien on your election to your new
offices. We have many capable and dedicated members of the Board of Aldermen so you are leading, |
think a very accomplished and as | said dedicated group. It will be my pleasure and honor to work with you
as time goes on.
President Wilshire
| am humbled and honored to be sitting here this evening, thank you Mayor.
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
Alderman Dowd
| would like to echo the Mayor's comments with regard to Brian’s family. They appreciated everything
the City did to honor Brian. Brian and | have known each other for decades and | considered him a
very close friend and mentor. We spent many, many days and nights together as friends and
colleagues, numerous city meetings, time spend with our friends, parties, city events and especially
watching Patriots games. Last Sunday night, Brian, his daughter Kim and | were present at a great
football game which Brian thoroughly enjoyed. Brian shared Patriots season tickets with me for years
and we’ve been to more games than | can count. Unfortunately a health issue ended our time with
Brian as we were leaving the game. The next few hours and the next few days were very hard on his
family, his friends and the entire City of Nashua and beyond.
