House Speaker To Set Special Election Dates For Beverly State Representative

BEVERLY, MA — While there is still no dates set for primary and general special elections to fill the open 6th Essex State House set representing Beverly and Wenham Precinct 1, when the elections do occur all voting will take place at the Beverly High School field house.

The Beverly City Council unanimously approved that request during Tuesday night's meeting with election dates still forthcoming to fill the seat vacated when Jerry Parisella was nominated and confirmed as an Associate Justice of the District Court.

Parisella was elected to his eighth term in November before Gov. Maura Healey nominated him to the District Court as her 50th judicial nomination the next month.

City Councilors Hannah Bowen and Todd Rotondo, who both recused themselves from the voting discussion on Monday, have said they intend to run for the open seat, as well as Beverly Chamber of Commerce President Medley Long.

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Speaker of the House Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) will ultimately determine the election dates, according to the city solicitor's office, and had not indicated when they will be as of Tuesday.

City Clerk Lisa Kent said the effort to centralize voting is for this election cycle only given the special circumstances and that there was a presidential general election just two months ago in this cycle.

"Because it was not foreseen," Kent told the Council, "there's not a lot left in the budget for two more elections and it would just be a lot more cost-efficient to have it in one spot where our office can work with less workers, less police."

Because the elections will be held in the field house, indications were that all Beverly Public Schools would be able to remain in session on the election days.

The City Council had previously discussed finding alternative voting locations so as to not disrupt school days on election days each year with either having no school on those days or with the potential safety concerns of having non-students and non-staff on campus.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)