By MARK SARDELLA 

WAKEFIELD — People who vote on Election Day ought to be able to park their cars when they arrive at the polls. At least that’s what Town Councilor Edward Dombroski and Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio believe. 

At last week’s Town Council meeting, Maio and Dombroski each described having to drive around the Galvin Middle School parking lot multiple times before finding a spot to leave their cars while they voted in the March 5 Presidential Primary. Maio said that he eventually gave up and parked illegally. 

The problem seems to be that, while there were no classes going on at the Galvin on Election Day, teachers were in the building for “professional development,” and their cars were occupying many of the parking spaces, leaving voters circling the lot waiting for a spot to open up. 

“The School Department has been good about providing non-student days on Election Days,” Maio said. “However, that really doesn’t help us in allowing people to get easily to the polls if there are professional development events where teachers or others are parking at the Galvin.” 

Maio said that his office heard from people who had to park down the street and he noted that there have been past reports where people gave up and left without voting. 

In 2018, the town abandoned its old neighborhood polling places, moving all seven precincts into one central location at the Galvin Middle School gymnasium. The schools generally cancel classes on election days, so there are no students in the building. But if professional development is held at the Galvin on those days, parking for voters is an issue. 

“It makes no sense to have the accommodation of not having kids in school that day and then not being able to use the parking lot for voters as we intended,” Dombroski said. He added that several people approached him coming out of the polls and asked why parking was so difficult. He said that one woman told him that she had rushed over from work to vote during her break but had a hard time parking. 

“We need to make it as easy as possible,” Dombroski said. “We are disenfranchising a lot of potential voters because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of parking. The inclement weather on the March 5 Primary Day just compounded the issue, he said.  

Dombroski suggested developing a policy for the utilization of the Galvin building on the limited number of occasions during the year when the town needs to have priority for parking. Such a transparent policy would allow the School Department to plan around things like elections. He noted that on at least one previous occasion, the school created satellite parking for teachers with a shuttle service to and from the school on Election Day. 

He observed that the Town Election is coming up on April 23, followed by the State Primary in September and the November Presidential Election. 

“We need to make it as easy as possible to get to the polls,” Dombroski said. “We need to craft a policy that guarantees that when the town needs that building, the parking is also available.” 

But not every Town Councilor had the same level of concern over parking and access to the polls on Election Day. 

Councilor Mehreen Butt noted that people now have the option of early voting at Town Hall and voting by mail. 

“We also just passed the bicycle and pedestrian Plan, so hopefully more people will walk and bike if the weather is nice,” she said. “We should highlight that as an option.” 

Town Councilor Anne Danehy said that the ultimate goal should be to increase voter turnout. “We don’t want any barriers to voting,” she said. 

Town Council chairman Jonathan Chines said that upcoming Town Election Day on April 23 is not a professional development day for the schools. (The online 2023-2024 Wakefield Public Schools Academic Calendar lists April 23 as a regular school day.) 

Chines asked Maio to work with Town Clerk Betsy Sheeran and School Superintendent Doug Lyons to “make sure we have a plan for that day.” 

Maio agreed to work on a plan and bring it back to the board.