542 New Voter Registrations Ensure Town Meeting Redistricting Plan for September-August 16, 1966

Registration closed Saturday night with 542 new voters added to the rolls over the preceding week, bringing Norwood’s total registered voters to 13,436.

Between July 1 and August 1, only 130 new registrations had been recorded, and until recently, it appeared that newly passed legislation raising the town meeting membership limit to 300 would not be triggered this year.

However, following an intensive registration drive spearheaded by the Democratic Town Committee, the surge in new voters successfully pushed the tally high enough to warrant a town meeting membership of 201 plus five members at large, surpassing the previous 190 representatives.

Town Clerk Bartley Connolly noted that it is unfortunate redistricting must occur in September, predicting that even greater numbers would register as fall state and national elections approach. State law mandates redistricting during September, and population shifts had previously brought state laws and town bylaws into conflict—the former state ceiling was 200, while town bylaws required one representative for every 1.5 percent of voters, calling for a larger assembly. Legislation introduced by Rep. William Butters of Norwood instructed selectmen to petition the legislature to raise the cap.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger