Marshfield Recall Petition Faces June Hearing as Registrars Set May 22 Date

MARSHFIELD — May 1, 2026 — Marshfield's Board of Registrars voted unanimously Friday to hold a formal hearing on six objections to a recall petition on May 22, 2026 at 9 a.m. in the Select Board chamber. The three-member board — David O'Reilly, Walter Sterling, and Dave Kohler — met remotely for the first time on this matter under the guidance of Special Counsel Lauren Goldberg of KP Law, who outlined a two-track hearing process addressing both legal sufficiency challenges and signature-by-signature validity disputes. Town Clerk Narese Casper confirmed that 3,874 signatures had been certified on the petition; the statutory threshold was not stated on the record. Objections were filed by the subject of the recall and by three residents — Joe Percevich, Pamela Keith, and Eric Kelly — all on or before the April 28 deadline. Goldberg cautioned against a rushed timeline, saying "four days is not the right amount of time" to conduct a hearing of this complexity, while also warning that a June date would risk running afoul of the statute's "forthwith" standard. A follow-up procedural Zoom meeting to adopt a formal briefing schedule was set for May 7 at 10 a.m.