NEW: Clerk to Answer to Election Commission in Written Report

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Friday, December 07, 2012

Adam Joseph Drici, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Worcester City Clerk David Rushford said he would provide the City's Board of Election Commissioners with answers regarding election observer rules and his communications with the Secretary of State's Office in the form of a written report Thursday night.

In question are statements made by Rushford at previous Election Commission meetings in which he indicated that Secretary of State William Galvin's Office had instituted new guidelines for poll observers that corresponded with changes the Commission had requested, which would require observers to provide identification and wear a badge.

Those statements were subsequently proven to be inaccurate in a series of harshly worded letters from the Secretary of State's Elections Division.

Commissioner Robert Winant said he was upset and embarrassed by the light the board was put in by those letters, and he had prepared a series of questions for Rushford regarding what transpired between the Clerk's office and the Secretary of State's.

However, Rushford said that he was not aware he would be asked specific questions during Thursday night's meeting, but that he would be happy to respond in the form of a written report to the Commission.

"I'm not going to make any rash statements here," Rushford said.

Commissioner David Lapierre had previously voiced concerns over the seemingly conflicting information received from the Clerk and Secretary of State's Office and questioned how the miscommunication between the two offices occurred.

"There was never any intention to withhold information on my part," said Rushford, adding that he will share anything that appears to be significant or less than significant in the future.