The ballot for this month’s local election has been finalized. Arlington residents will cast votes to fill various seats in Town Meeting, and on two ballot questions, the big-ticket question is a proposed $14.8 million override of the tax override.
All but two of the town office races on the March 28 ballot are uncontested. The Housing Authority has one opening, and two candidates are campaigning for the position: Jacob Henry Deck and Nicholas C. Mitropoulos. The single seat for the one-year appointment to the School Committee has three candidates: Dmitry Missiuro Vasilyev, Crystal S. Haynes Copithorne, and Shaun D. Berry. That seat was left vacant when Jane P. Morgan resigned from the committee to fill the spot on the Select Board after member Len Diggins moved out of town.
The town will host a forum on March 18 for those running for townwide offices.
Question One on the ballot is an operating override of the Proposition 2½ tax cap, which, if approved by voters, would permanently increase property taxes by $14.8 million to cover the operating costs of town and school departments. Prop. 2½ is a state law that limits how much property taxes can be increased to 2.5 percent town-wide annually. The tax base also increases each year based on “new growth” such as the construction of apartment buildings and home improvement projects.
The most recent operating override of $7 million, approved by voters in November 2023, kept municipal finances afloat through the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30. Another type of override is a debt exclusion, such as the June 2019 vote that funded the new $290.4 million Arlington High School, which was completed earlier this year.
Candidates on the ballot
Also on the ballot are: the two seats on the Select Board, with two candidates running, incumbent Diane Mahon and Joseph A. Solomon; three incumbents for three seats on the School Committee: Elizabeth R. Exton, Paul Schlichtman, and Laura B. Gitelson; and Board of Assessors chair Mary Winstanley O’Connor is running unopposed. Arlington is facing a structural deficit in balancing its books, as revenue has not kept pace with the rising costs of maintaining services. Town officials – from elected to professional to volunteers – have been meeting for more than a year to cut the projected deficit and get costs under control. Because of Arlington’s small commercial tax base, there is a heavier tax burden placed on the residential taxpayers, according to the town’s website.
According to a list of commitments approved by the Select Board, a successful vote would fund town and school operations for at least three fiscal years, and a promise that the town would not seek another operating override for at least three years. If the vote fails, the town could seek another override on next year’s ballot. The town government has posted an online calculator for residents to estimate their real estate taxes if the override passes for Fiscal Year 2027, which begins on July 1.
No special election
The Select Board approves all tax override questions for inclusion on the ballot and has traditionally set the election to come after Town Meeting has started so that the town’s voters have a full picture of the budget situation. This year, the Select Board decided not to wait for a special election later in the year.
“The big decision for the Select Board during an override year is when it will be held, and traditionally, in Arlington, the overrides are held in June,” said Town Clerk Juli Brazile. “This is so we have more time for the state budgeting process to go further.
“Because we don’t know exactly what the dollars are that we’re going to get from the state in March. But that has its own budgeting problems, and it means you’re holding an extra election, which is an extra expense.”
Putting the override on the annual spring ballot saves the town roughly $50,000 by avoiding an additional election, said Brazile. While two of the three elections in this year’s cycle are at the state level, the town is still responsible for many of the expenses related to them.
“The state provides the ballots [for state elections],” said Brazile. “So all of that is free. It just shows up. We have to pay the outgoing postage for all elections. But the state considers vote-by-mail an unfunded mandate because it’s a new expense. And so if I fill out forms, I can get reimbursed for all the postage costs, but we’re definitely out of pocket for the cost of operating the polls on election day.”
Three elections this year
With three elections this year, planning has been underway for months. Brazile said budget planning started last October to calculate the necessary allotment of town money to properly fund the three elections. Her office must organize and pay any personnel working the polls, like police security and poll staffers.
Brazile said she is grateful for the support of the Arlington Police Department and the motivated group of Arlington poll workers. All poll workers are entitled to compensation for their time, in Arlington the average hourly rate is around $17, said Brazile. Many will work 12 or more hours while the polls are open.
The most difficult part of planning an election today for Brazile is a timing battle that she has little control over.
“Honestly, I think the hardest thing is just the logistics that vote by mail changed,” said Brazile. “It changed the flow of the work because in some cases, the time we get the ballots is closer to the date of the election. So we’re under more pressure to mail quickly.”
For example, this year’s primary election is held at the beginning of September, but the election will not be certified until weeks later. Printing at the state-level for these ballots cannot happen until after the results have been certified, and then the state must deliver each community its allotment of ballots.
Mail-in ballots
“Best case, I get my ballots ready to go first of October,” said Brazile. “That’s not a lot of time to mail 10 or 15,000 ballots and for people to get them back to me. So that’s the logistically tricky thing.”
Working with the Arlington Post Office during elections has helped Brazile and her team settle into a new pattern for vote-by-mail. After many voting laws changed during the pandemic, Brazile said the partnership with the post office has been a great help in making voters feel as comfortable as possible when casting their vote non-traditionally.
The Arlington post office was unable to provide a comment due to agency policy. U.S. Postal Service media representative, Judy Ferriera, said in an emailed comment, “Throughout the year, the postal service has engaged in regular communication and meetings with many stakeholders across the election ecosystem — including members of Congress, secretaries of state, governors and local boards of elections and election administrators — to educate stakeholders that choose to use the mail on how to do so effectively.”
In local elections, the town is responsible for creating mail voting kits. Brazile said that as early as last fall, her office began preparing kits for Arlington residents who chose to vote by mail. As vote-by-mail is becoming increasingly popular in the town, Brazile and her department prepared 7,000 kits ahead of time, but due to the law, there is always a rush at the finish line.
“For town elections, I can’t finalize the ballot by law any earlier than 33 days before the election,” said Brazile. “And then I put the order in, and I start praying that I can get my ballots as quickly as possible, so that we can have basically a week to mail them. Otherwise, there’s just not enough time for people to be comfortable.”
This year, despite inclement weather and a quick turnaround, Brazile said her office is on track for a smooth election day. Town elections see a smaller turnout than state or presidential elections. However, with an override on the ballot, Brazile expects to see a bump in the norm to around a 40 percent turnout.
There are other items on the March 28 town ballot. The other races on the ballot are the Town Meeting seats for the 21 precincts in town. You can find more about who your Town Meeting representatives are and where and how to vote on the town’s website.
March 18 is the last day to register to vote in the town election.
This news story, published on March 11, 2026, was written as part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.
