The Westport Board of Registrars is down to one member after three of its four seat holders were recently found to be ineligible to serve.

The four-member board conducts local elections, maintains the voting rolls, registers voters and accepts nomination papers, among many duties. Under Massachusetts state law it is supposed to be apolitical, with one seat held by the town clerk and the other three composed of members representing the two main political town committees.

While the clerk need not be affiliated with either major party, the other three must. Further, only two members can be affiliated with either one of the parties.

When vacancies open for either party, the town committee affiliated with that party gives the town a list of three approved, registered members, which are then reviewed by the select board and a member chosen.

The issue with Westport's membership came up recently when resident Paul Trial, who had been appointed by the select board, was found not eligible to serve. Though his name was forwarded to the town by the Republican Town Committee, he was unregistered, select board chair Shana Shufelt said at Monday's meeting.

As Westport Town Clerk Bernadette Oliver was researching that issue, she learned that two other members, Arthur Caesar and Elizabeth Collins, were also ineligible to serve. Both are elected officials — Caesar is the town constable, Collins a member of the housing authority — and Oliver said she learned in her research that elected officials cannot serve the at-large positions on the board.

"It was the position of the town clerk that right now ... we only have one registrar, and that is the town clerk herself," Shufelt said.

Since Oliver is an unenrolled (unaffiliated) voter, the select board must now choose three candidates from the two main parties, and the split must be 2-1.

Oliver this week was directed to contact Westport's Democratic and Republican town committees to request a list of three possible appointees each. Once they come in, the select board will choose from each.

"There is some urgency because some citizen positions for statewide ballots are coming up," Shufelt said Monday.

What does state law say?

Mass General Law Part VIII, Chapter 51, Title 15, states in part:

There shall be ... a board of registrars of voters consisting of the city or town clerk and three other persons who shall, in a city, be appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the aldermen, and in a town, by a writing signed by the selectmen and filed with the town clerk.

As the terms of the several registrars expire, and in case a vacancy occurs in the board of registrars of voters, the selectmen or the appointing authority shall so appoint their successors that as nearly as possible the members of the board shall represent the two leading political parties, as defined in section one of chapter fifty; provided, that a city or town clerk need not be enrolled in a political party; and provided further, that in no case shall an appointment be made as to cause a board to have more than two members, including the city or town clerk, of the same political party. Every such appointment shall be made in a town by the selectmen or the appointing authority from a list to be submitted to them by the town committee of the political party from the members of which the position is to be filled, containing the names of three enrolled members of such party resident in the town, selected by a majority vote at a duly called meeting.