Duxbury’s drive-through ballot: Lower budget, no contests, & candidate openings

February 28, 2026 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

Duxbury voters will go to the polls on Town Meeting Day on Tuesday to vote on all town business and elections by ballot using their now-familiar drive-through format outside the town office and highway garage on Route 100. 

Elections official Greg Trulson staffs the check-in booth at Duxbury’s drive-through polling place on Town Meeting Day 2023. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Anyone who received an absentee ballot must return their marked ballots by 7 p.m. on Tuesday. 

In a unique twist this year, for the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, which begins July 1, the amount of money taxpayers are being asked to approve is down from the current fiscal year. 

The proposed $1,183,524 spending plan represents a drop of 9.7% from the $1,311,655 that voters approved in 2025. Much of the reductions are due to lower spending anticipated for road projects compared with higher spending in the past several years due to extraordinary repairs needed following flooding events and severe mud season conditions. The road salt budget has also been trimmed by more than half for the coming year, from $43,750 this year to $19,250 in FY27.

One category of new revenue that the town can expect next year and in years to come is $12,350 from a lease payment for the new solar array on town property near the Highway Department gravel pit. 

Several questions on the ballot ask voters to allocate surplus funds to several reserve accounts: $125,000 to the Capital Reserve fund, $20,000 to the Pavement $80,000 to the Grant Escrow account. Article 5 on the ballot proposes spending $183,000 for a new tandem truck for the Highway Department.   

The slate of candidates for local offices has several vacant spots and no contests this year. 

Due to appointments made in 2025 for members to serve until this Town Meeting Day, the Duxbury Selectboard has four positions on the ballot this year. Only three candidates are running however: Mari Pratt and Matt Schroeder for one-year spots, and Gwenna Peters for the remaining two years on a three-year term, all incumbents. Member Jamison Ervin opted not to run for re-election this year, and no one filed to get on the ballot for that three-year position. If no write-in candidate emerges in time for the election, the selectboard would appoint someone to that spot to serve until March 2027. 

Other candidates on the ballot are Dan Senning for one year as town moderator; Alan Quackenbush for lister and Jessica Engles for Cemetery Commission, both of which are three-year positions; Eric Potter is running first constable for two years, and James Welch is the candidate for a two-year term as second constable.

Two spots on the town Budget Committee have no contenders: one is a full five-year term and the other is four years remaining on a term. These also would be filled by selectboard appointment after the election. 

Both of Duxbury’s seats on the Harwood Unified Union School Board are on the ballot unopposed. Cindy Senning is seeking re-election to another three-year term. Emily Dolloff, who was appointed in 2025 to serve until this March, is running to serve the remaining two years in her seat. 

Not on the ballot is Duxbury’s Town Clerk and Treasurer Maureen Harvey, who was elected in 2025 to three-year terms for both roles. Harvey, however, is looking to step back from her various positions in the near future. In the town’s Annual Report, Harvey puts out a call for potential replacements. “I have held four positions within the town — clerk, treasurer, delinquent tax collector and Development Review Board clerk,” she writes. “I have passed the baton for the DRB position and now it is time to pass the baton on the town clerk’s job. I am retiring from one job at a time, and this one is next.”

The part-time town clerk position must be held by a town resident, Harvey notes. She also says she is willing to remain as the town’s part-time treasurer to work alongside a new clerk through a transition time. The various roles, along with selectboard clerk, also could be combined for someone looking to work more hours, she points out. Harvey encourages anyone interested in learning more about the duties to contact her after Town Meeting Day.