Claire Smith, who was first elected in 2010 as Town Moderator, is back on the April 2 ballot and is running unopposed for position.

Over the past 60 years, Smith has actively participated in the town’s life and worked with many organizations, including Wareham Land Trust, Massachusetts Moderators' Association, Wareham Environment Association, Wareham Firearm association, West Wareham Concerned Citizen Group, and more.

Smith also helped organize the Wareham High School Alumni Association.

“I helped organize the alumni association, and in the past, I held different roles there: president, vice president, secretary, and clerk,” said Smith.

In 1954, at the age of eight, Smith and her family moved from Medford to Wareham. After graduating from Wareham High School in 1964, she studied accounting at Kinyoun-Campbell Business School and graduated in 1966.

Smith’s father, who was a very active member of the community and after whom the town named the Joseph W. Conway playground at Swifts Beach, motivated her to pursue a career in local politics. When Smith was a child, Mr. Conway and a group of Wareham citizens persuaded the board of Selectmen to dedicate the Minot forest to the community.

“They used to come to our house or meet at the Town Hall,” recalled Smith. “It was really inspiring because I saw that they were doing something very important for our community.”

Smith is also one of the organizers of the annual Grumpy’s 5k Cranberry Harvest Race. The race is named after Smith’s brother, Robert Conway, who used his photography as a way to remind kids, conservation groups, bog owners, and people in general to take notice of the beauty of the Wareham area and the importance of protecting the environment.

“Robert really focused on educating people about the role cranberry bogs played in nature and he would talk about the cranberry industry and how it is important to this area in the Cape,” said Smith.

If re-elected in April, Smith is hoping to improve the citizens' privacy by incorporating electronic voting. She believes that this step will increase voter turnout as people will be able to avoid the fear of being judged.

“I think people will be more comfortable coming to voting if it was private,” said Smith. “They won’t be raising their hands, won't be intimidated by what neighbors watching them might think.”