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Secret Ballot Box's Age A Mystery
Tuesday,
February 2, 2010
Town Clerk Bill Barnett can count on one hand how many times it’s been used, which is only when an Annual Town Meeting or a Special Town Meeting requests a secret ballot.
It’s just a box, but it’s been estimated by some at town hall to be over 100 years old. The top has the likeness of a paddle, with a slit on top to insert a “yes” or “no” vote.
Barnett brings the box to every Town Meeting.
It is unknown when and how the box came to be used as a “Secret Ballot Box,” but Registrar Pauline Johnson seems to remember it being around since she first started working at town hall in the mid-1960’s. It currently sits on a shelf at the Town Clerk’s office. “I believe Bob Camp showed me that box when I was appointed Town Accountant in this town,” said Johnson. Camp was Town Clerk at that time.
A casual inspection of the stained wooden box indicates that it was used to ship 25 lbs of large prunes from Santa Clara, CA. Upon closer inspection a sunburst is revealed with the words “Sun Glo” on top of the side of the box and “Higgins Hyde Packing Company, San Jose, CA.”
“I think it was used three times,” said Barnett. He explained that the first time he remembers the box being used is in the late 1980’s when General Motors wanted to make Belchertown a hub for their Northeast distribution. “George Bock was still Town Clerk then,” he said.
Without a consultation at Antique Road’s Show or a Carbon 14 test that can calculate age by using the half-life of the radioactive isotope Carbon-14, determining the exact age of the box can not be known. However, one source states that the shift from wooden crates to cardboard was made in the 1960’s. Further, another source states that prune plum orchards in California accounted for 99% of the prune plums produce in the United States.
Regardless of its age, Belchertown’s Secret Ballot Box must have an interesting story to tell. To start out as a produce box for shipping Santa Clara Prunes and to end up on the shelf of a Town Clerk in a small New England town to be used in such an official capacity begs the question: how did it get here?
Of course, someone in Belchertown could have just ordered some prunes.
If you have insight into this box based on the information provided, please email mseward@belchertown-news.com.
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