SHUTESBURY — Elected as Shutesbury’s town clerk at the height of the pandemic in June 2020, Grace Bannasch remembers the rapid adjustments to voting procedures that were then underway.
“It was a wild time to come into the role,” Bannasch said. “Election laws were changing, sometimes daily, and we had to create the vote-by-mail system practically overnight.”
But all of that uncertainty provided valuable insights into town clerk work.
With continued appreciation for being part of what may be the longest-running and first paid municipal position, and to ensure public access to and preservation of town records, Bannasch is moving on to become the appointed full-time town clerk in Groton, a town of about 11,000 about an hour east of Shutesbury.
“The town clerk is usually the first person people interact with and often the public face of making government more transparent,” Bannasch said.
It was in 2019 that Bannasch said she stumbled into the job almost by accident, applying to be the assistant town clerk under Town Clerk Susie Mosher.
“I fell in love with the work and realized that I wanted to do this for my career,” said Bannasch, who is a member of the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association, earned her certified clerks designation and has been part of the New England Municipal Clerks Institute & Academy.
In a small town, Bannasch has been responsible for the use of the 1934 wooden ballot box with a hand crank, which tallies ballots with a manual counter when they are inserted on Election Day, followed by a bell dinging as the ballot falls into the box.
Typically, about 20 poll workers spend three to four hours counting the ballots, with more than 1,000 ballots during the busiest elections. Bannasch said that is at the uppermost of being able to do an accurate count, so moving to Groton she is excited by the machine count, as there is less chance of error.
Also in Groton, she will be close to a coffee shop next to Town Hall, and will have access to a town Information Technology Department, as well as help from two long-serving assistant town clerks. While appointed, rather than elected, she considers the positions to be equal, and the responsibilities the same.
“No matter how big or how small, you have to perform to the same standards,” Bannasch said, adding that Groton faces many of the same budgetary issues as Shutesbury.
Town clerk work is consistent throughout the state and in communities with Town Meetings. The town clerk is in charge of voter check-in and ensuring either the regular moderator, or a fill-in, is present to oversee proceedings. The town clerk has to certify the actions by voters and also send any bylaw changes to the state Attorney General’s Office for approval.
Daily work includes the issuing of birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as dog tags, meaning the town clerk is touching everyone’s lives in many ways, Bannasch said. She has seen a significant increase in providing copies of these to residents for obtaining REAL IDs through the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
As town archivist, she compiles minutes and agendas, and stores boxes of paper records.
Part of the transparency Bannasch promotes has been launching the town’s YouTube channel, where all recorded municipal meetings, whether in person at Town Hall or via Zoom, are uploaded. This began after Bannasch was fielding several requests each week for links to these videos. Understanding some committee members were uncomfortable about being recorded, Bannasch said this has now become appreciated for ease of minute-taking, and she has instructed her successor to continue this practice.
Bannasch has also been at the front lines of records appeals, often seen as predatory requests, made by right-leaning national organizations trying to prove voter fraud in recent national elections. At one time inundated with time-consuming requests that mostly had to be denied, such as for ballot images that her old-fashioned wooden ballot box doesn’t do, Bannasch said these have dropped off a bit.
Bannasch knew that, due to the part-time nature of Shutesbury’s role, she wouldn’t be in the position long-term.
“There has been preparation for this transition for a while, going through all procedures and making sure that all instructions are ready,” Bannasch noted.
While Groton has a Special Town Meeting in October, no municipal elections will take place there until next spring, and Bannasch will have some time before winter weather arrives to find a home to shorten her commute.
“This is the right time of year to make this move; it’s a nice little slow spot,” Bannasch said.
In leaving the town in which she grew up, Bannasch recalled during the pandemic being approached by residents near her home or on the street with questions about Open Meeting Law or some other facet of the job.
“You really have to be on call 24/7,” Bannasch said. “It pays part-time, but it’s a full-time job; you’re never really off the clock. “