John Cushing:

relative to having absentee ballots available between the hours of 7 am
-10 am on the day of election...

unfortunately, we do not vote in the town office.  this means i have to
move half of my office for elections.  right now the polls open at 10
am.  i am at my office at 7:30 am in order to open the polls by 10 am.
push that back to 7 am and i'm at my office at 4:30 am!!

who is going to be "in charge" of the polling place while i'm busy
handing out absentee ballot requests, having these completed, handing
out absentee ballots, making sure there is privacy for these voters to
vote and receiving these ballots back before the person leaves the
polling place.

now, while i'm handling the absentee ballots i also have to set up the
polling place, which means the firemen have to be there to disconnect
and move their trucks and equipment so we have room to set up a polling
area, set up the booths, bring in and prepare the voting machine, move
half my office to the polling place, set up the tables, chairs, handicap
accessible booths, rope off the firemens' area, etc..  i'm going to ask
the volunteer firemen to be there at 4:30 am to begin doing this?

the voter already has twenty days to request a ballot.

leave our polling hours to the discretion of each individual town's
board of civil authority.  that's their job.  let them do it!