If voting, counting, or certification is interfered with, the No Kings Coalition may call for peaceful protests nationwide within 24 to 48 hours. Boston-area groups would play a supporting role. If a call goes out, we will spread the word right away.
Millis Democracy Endorses Tom Melville for State Representative, 9th Norfolk District
Millis Democracy ·
On November 3, voters in the 9th Norfolk District will choose their state representative. The district covers Medfield (Precincts 3 and 4), Millis (Precinct 1), Norfolk, Plainville, Walpole (Precinct 5), and Wrentham. The choice is between Democrat Tom Melville and Republican incumbent Marcus Vaughn, who has held the seat since January 2023.
Millis Democracy endorses Tom Melville.
Who Tom Melville is
Tom Melville is a graduate of Boston University and Boston College Law School and a licensed attorney in Massachusetts. He spent decades in public-service journalism and communications: Executive News Director at WBUR, News Director at NECN, and Communications Director at the MIT Energy Initiative. Before that, he served in the Peace Corps.
Locally, he was Board President of the Medfield Afterschool Program. He is a husband, father, and grandfather. His daughter teaches second grade in a local public school.
His career has been spent explaining complicated things to the public, accurately, under pressure. That is a useful skill in a legislature.
Why we support him
Cost of living, starting with energy
Energy bills in this district have climbed while utilities post large profits. Melville proposes a Ratepayer Bill of Rights, near-term bill relief, more local low-cost generation, and an end to using ratepayer money for new gas infrastructure. On housing, he pairs support for homeowners and tenants with respect for local decision-making. On healthcare, he has committed to finishing the Norwood Hospital rebuild, which matters to every town in this district.
Showing up
Melville has pledged to serve as a full-time representative and to hold regular open office hours. His platform names specific local work: the Park Street Bridge, Kingsbury Pond, and water quality. These are not national talking points. They are district problems that need someone at the State House pushing on them.
Transparency and democracy
As a career journalist, Melville treats public records as belonging to the public. He supports measures to improve legislative transparency and to expand access to the ballot and to public information. Millis Democracy exists to strengthen democratic participation. A representative who shares that commitment is worth electing.
Rights and public safety
Melville supports protecting access to reproductive healthcare and stands with organized labor. His endorsements include the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, Gun Sense Voter, Progressive Massachusetts, the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the Wrentham Democrats.
The contrast
Rep. Vaughn has made his own case, and voters should read it. His platform emphasizes affordability, local control over housing, an all-of-the-above energy strategy, scrutiny of state mandates, and support for police and first responders. He has opposed the 2024 law modernizing the state's firearms statutes, which addressed ghost guns and the red flag law, and has called for amending the state's Right to Shelter law.
We read the same problems differently. Rising energy costs call for holding utilities accountable, not loosening climate commitments. Housing shortages call for real production, not another round of exemptions. Gun safety laws that address untraceable firearms are basic public safety. On those questions, Tom Melville is closer to where we think this district should be.
This seat is competitive
The 9th Norfolk has been held by a Republican since 1992. Rep. Vaughn won with 51 percent in 2022 and 57 percent in 2024. That is not a safe margin. Turnout decides this race.
How to vote
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
Early in-person voting in Millis is at Town Hall, 900 Main Street, through Friday, October 30. Remaining hours: Monday 10/26, 8:30 AM to 7:30 PM; Tuesday through Thursday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM; Friday 10/30, 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM.
The deadline to request a mail ballot is Tuesday, October 27, at 5 PM.
Note for Millis residents: only Millis Precinct 1 is in the 9th Norfolk District. Check your ballot before you go.
Why Millis Democracy Endorses Tamisha Civil for Governor's Council
The Millis Democratic Town Committee endorses Tamisha Civil for re-election to the Massachusetts Governor's Council, District 2. Millis is in District 2. The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
This is a down-ballot race. It is also one of the most consequential seats on the ballot for anyone who cares about the courts.
What the Governor's Council does
The Governor's Council is an eight-member elected body. It confirms or rejects the governor's nominees for judgeships, clerk magistrates, and the Parole Board. It also votes on pardons and commutations.
Judges in Massachusetts serve until age 70. A single confirmation vote can shape a courtroom for decades. Most voters skip this line on the ballot because they do not know what it is. That is the reason to pay attention to it.
Her record
Councillor Civil has held the District 2 seat since January 2025. She was elected in 2024 with 57 percent of the vote. She and District 5 Councillor Eunice Zeigler, both daughters of Haitian immigrants, were the first women of color elected to the Council.
Her career has been spent inside the system the Council oversees:
About four years as a victim witness advocate in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, helping crime victims navigate the courts
About six years as a Massachusetts probation officer
Work in a domestic violence homeless shelter
A master's degree in criminal justice and leadership from Northeastern University
She has been endorsed in past campaigns by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, and Progressive Massachusetts.
Why it matters
Civil knows the courts from both sides. She has sat with crime victims, and she has supervised people on probation. That is the range of experience a Council member needs when deciding who belongs on the bench.
She also knows what a wrongful conviction costs. Her cousin spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit before he was exonerated. She has said that experience is part of why she ran. The Council votes on pardons and commutations. Firsthand knowledge of how the system can fail is not an abstraction in that role.
Civil does not have a law degree, and some voters will ask about that. Most councillors have been lawyers, and the Council has long reflected one profession. The job is to judge whether a nominee is fit to sit in judgment over others. Ten years working inside the courts, alongside the people who appear in them, is direct preparation for that.
How to vote
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Tamisha Civil is on the Democratic line for Governor's Council, District 2. Vote the whole ballot.
Why Millis Democracy Endorses Djuna Perkins for Norfolk County DA
Our endorsement
Millis Democracy endorses Djuna Perkins for Norfolk County District Attorney on November 3.
The DA race rarely gets the attention of the top of the ballot, but few offices touch daily life in Millis more directly. The Norfolk DA's office handles criminal prosecutions in 27 cities and towns south and west of Boston, ours included. It decides which cases get brought, how victims are treated, and whether the law applies the same way to everyone.
A trust problem we can't ignore
Outgoing DA Michael Morrissey came under heavy criticism for his office's handling of two cases: the Karen Read prosecution and the investigation into the death of Sandra Birchmore, a 23-year-old pregnant woman authorities allege was killed by a Stoughton police officer.
After two Read trials ended with only an OUI conviction, the office offered the public no statement. Whatever anyone thinks of the verdict, silence from the county's top prosecutor is not how public trust gets rebuilt.
Djuna Perkins saw this early. She launched her campaign in 2024, shortly after federal agents arrested former Stoughton detective Matthew Farwell in the Birchmore case, and well before Morrissey announced his retirement. Challenging an entrenched incumbent was not the safe move. She made it anyway.
Experience for the job
Perkins, a Dedham resident, has 34 years as a Massachusetts lawyer. Nearly 10 of those were as a prosecutor, serving as an Assistant Attorney General and as an Assistant District Attorney in Suffolk County, where she supervised dozens of attorneys and thousands of cases. She has also spent 20 years in private practice representing victims of sexual crimes and investigating sexual abuse in schools, workplaces, and other organizations.”
She has tried cases in District and Superior Court and argued before the Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court. That is the daily work of a DA's office, and she has done it.
The people who supervised her vouch for her. She is endorsed by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, former Suffolk DA Ralph Martin, and Progressive Massachusetts. In September, Norfolk County Democrats chose her from a field of seven in the primary.
What she stands for
Perkins has put her mission plainly: no one should be treated differently under the law because of political connections, money, or privilege. Protect victims. Prosecute those who harm others. Keep every resident safe.
Her plan follows from that. She has committed to rebuilding the office around professionalism and high ethical standards, investigating the Stoughton Police Department's youth programs in light of the Birchmore case, and working directly with Norfolk County's communities to earn back trust.
At Millis Democracy, we talk often about what happens when power escapes accountability. Equal justice under law is one of the oldest checks we have. Djuna Perkins wants to restore it in Norfolk County, and we want to help her do it.
Vote November 3
Djuna Perkins faces former state prosecutor Joe Pagliarulo in the general election. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Check your polling place and early voting options at sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA, and bring a neighbor.
This Week's Top-Priority Cure Phone Banks in Battleground States
With early voting underway and ballots beginning to be returned in many states, our VoPro Pros calling team is working 5 days a week through the election razor-focused on curing (i.e., fixing) Democrats' ballot errors in battleground states such as Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, and more. We help voters correct errors that led to their ballots being rejected, such as forgetting to sign the envelope, so that their votes will count. Curing ballots can be a game changer. Many elections have been won or lost based on a few votes, or even just a single vote! In some elections, ballot curing has been the difference between winning and losing, because the number of ballots cured exceeded the margin of difference in the final tally.
Each phone bank will support the most immediate critical voter protection priorities for the Democratic Party. Our calls get top ratings in satisfaction and the feeling of making a difference from our volunteers, who get to speak to many grateful voters and see ballot errors fixed and votes counted. You will receive training, a script, and support at each session. No phone banking experience is needed.
Please join us and make a critical difference with voters in critical jurisdictions! Reserve your space NOW through mid-November at tinyurl.com/BallotCurePB. This link will work for all our phone banks, and we will keep working until the last curing deadlines in mid-November!
When: Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 6pm - 8pm ET Every Saturday, 12:30pm - 2:30pm ET Every Sunday, 4pm - 6pm ET More dates will added in the coming days and through curing deadlines! Check the signup link often.
HOW: Sign up at this Mobilize shortcut for all our VoPro Pros phone banks: tinyurl.com/BallotCurePB.
For questions or more information about any of the phone banks, join the #phone-bank-convening channel or direct message @Jenny Berg in Slack.
Please note that these phone banks are open to the public, so please share the link and encourage your like-minded friends to join in.
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