Galvin wants more details on casino vote

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said yesterday that Middleborough town officials had made a lot of progress in detailing procedures of the Town Meeting planned for Saturday to vote on whether to welcome a casino, but cautioned that more work was needed.

"They're making progress, but I will not be satisfied until we've finalized a plan that can be published," Galvin said by telephone.

He said one issue centers on the procedure for checking in voters as they cast ballots.

Galvin said Middleborough Town Clerk Eileen Gates said she was recruiting town clerks and assistants from neighboring communities to assist in the check-in at the ballot boxes.

There will be an initial check-in just to enter the athletic fields at Middleborough High School where the Town Meeting will be held. Thirty election workers will check in registered voters at one of six entrances, corresponding to their precinct.

Galvin said the lists of voters -- those who check into the fields and those who vote -- would be compared for discrepancies.

Galvin said he expected a final plan for the Town Meeting to be published by the town on the Internet and on paper by today.

As many as 10,000 of the town's 15,000 registered voters are expected to attend the meeting. According to the town clerk's office, 600 new voters have registered in the last two weeks.

The Town Meeting will vote on a proposed deal under which the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe would pay the town at least $11 million a year to host the $1 billion resort casino. The 45-page agreement was released to the public Monday.

Town officials say that voter check-in will start at 8 a.m., three hours before the meeting starts. Once they check in, voters will be given a paper ballot with yes on one half and no on the other.

Town Moderator James Thomas plans to call for a secret ballot, so voters will place the half that indicates their vote in a ballot box and discard the other half in a second box. That second box will be closely guarded, so discarded papers are not taken out and used again. There will be 30 ballot boxes and 30 corresponding disposal boxes.

Once collected, the ballots will be taken inside and counted by election workers. Thomas has said that a representative on each side of the issue will be allowed to witness the count, which could take a few hours.

The town plans to have the 30 ballot boxes carried from the athletic field into the gymnasium, where the ballots will be counted by one election official and checked by another.

Gates said the counting process will unfold in front of anyone who wants to watch from the gymnasium bleacher seats. Police will be on hand for security, she said.

About 750 to 800 chairs will be supplied by the town, along with an overhead canopy, for the section designated for the handicapped.

"We are asking others to bring their own chair," Marsha Brunelle, chairwoman of the Middleborough Board of Selectmen, wrote to Michelle K. Tassinari, legal counsel to the secretary of state's Election Division. "Providing seating for 15,000 registered voters is entirely cost prohibitive."

Roger Brunelle, Marsha Brunelle's husband and the town's technology director, has overseen a committee organizing the Town Meeting. He has estimated that the cost could run as high as $124,000.

"This is the largest Town Meeting in the history of this state," Roger Brunelle told selectmen at a meeting on the casino Monday night. "If you pull it off, it will be something to be proud of."

While planning for the Town Meeting continues, momentum in favor of the casino appears to be growing.

The Gambling Casino Study Committee, comprised of seven residents who said they had no strong opinions for or against casinos when they began their review, unanimously supported the casino agreement Monday evening.

The study committee met with local business owners, as well as people in towns with casinos, and interviewed public officials and town employees. It will open Saturday's Town Meeting with a short report on its findings.

The committee produced a 15-page report that can be reviewed at casinocommittee.com.

The group will forward that report. along with a letter in support of the local casino, to Governor Deval Patrick and to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, giving support to placing the land in federal trust.

Action on the proposed casino is also beginning to happen on Beacon Hill. By the end of this week, Patrick is scheduled to be briefed on a possible expansion of legalized gambling by Daniel O'Connell, state secretary of economic development.

Patrick has said that he is not morally opposed to gambling, but that he worries about the social costs. As a candidate last year, he said his research had left him "uncomfortable with slots in racetracks and casinos in Massachusetts," but added that he needed to do "more homework."

After taking office, Patrick directed O'Connell in February to lead a five-member study group to review studies and conduct interviews before reporting on the pros and cons of expanded gambling. O'Connell's group is not expected to make a recommendation to Patrick.

Patrick has said he will decide before the end of the summer whether to support gambling expansion.

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe must negotiate a compact with the state in order to operate slot machines, which are prohibited in Massachusetts.

Sean P. Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com.