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.