NORTHAMPTON — Current Hampshire County Register of Probate Michael J. Carey will seek another term as he has qualified to appear on the ballot for the seat’s Democratic nomination in September’s primary election.
In a phone interview Friday, Carey said he submitted around 900 certified signatures to Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin’s office earlier this month. The state Supreme Judicial Court lowered the number of signatures necessary to appear on the ballot from 500 to 250 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Carey.
“I’m looking forward to running and competing for the position if that’s what takes place for the Democratic nomination,” Carey said. The primary election is scheduled for Sept. 1.
A spokeswoman for Galvin’s office said that as far as she’s aware, Carey is the only person in Hampshire County to have submitted nomination papers for signature certification, which had a May 5 deadline. The deadline to file nomination papers with Galvin’s office is June 2, the spokeswoman said.
The Hampshire Probate and Family Court is located at 15 Atwood Drive in Northampton and handles divorces, adoptions, name changes, guardianship, and wills. Carey was first elected to the seat in 2012 to finish out the unexpired term of David Sullivan, its prior register and current Northwestern district attorney, then again in 2014 for a six-year term.
People coming into the court are usually without legal counsel and are there because something has gone wrong in their lives and are looking for relief, Carey said. He said he’s proud of his staff for helping people navigate through processes and connecting them to various resources they may need.
“That’s our goal, that’s what we’re there for,” he said.
Carey also noted a five-year volunteer project that began in 2014 and was supervised by Barbara Fell-Johnson, a former librarian at the Hampshire Law Library, that aimed to preserve deteriorating physical court records stored at the probate court that date back to the 1660s. He also said he was proud of helping move the court to its new facility at Atwood Drive from its former space on King Street last year, as well as opening a satellite office for the court in Belchertown in November 2019.
Carey said he believes the job is “a good fit” for him as the work is familiar to him, citing his 25 years of experience as a private attorney at Carey & Carey in Easthampton.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.