The Town of Rochester will offer early voting for this year’s presidential election, it was announced at Monday night’s Selectmen meeting.

Early voting will allow residents to go to the town clerk to vote during Town Hall business hours, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., from Oct. 24 through Nov. 4. Early voters will receive a privacy sleeve envelope from the clerk, and they can then mark their ballots and seal them in the envelopes. All ballots will be opened and counted on Election Day.

The option to participate in early voting is in response to the state anticipating a lot of interest in this election, and wanting to give another option to people who won’t want to get stuck in the traffic of the polls, or people who aren’t sure they will have the time to make it out to the polls on Election Day.

Regulations are still being drafted, but as of right now it is not going to cost the town any extra money.

Selectmen Chair Naida Parker said it’s not for certain, but that she’s anticipating early voting could also be used for the next governor’s election.

In other news:

Rochester Town Hall now has an official Facebook page. Created by the Board of Selectmen’s Administrative Assistant Amanda Baptiste, the page will serve as a way for residents to stay up to date on news, information and updates, as well as to share any closings due to snow during the winter. The page is called “Town of Rochester Town Hall.”