Thread by @jessmachadoshow

On Monday, December 30th, I received a text message from a known individual in my community who told me that Jacob Vaught, a member of the Somerset Board of Selectmen wanted me to call or text him. Here is a copy of the text message:

The person who sent me the message is friends with Vaught. It is well known in our community that I am not a fan of the one-term Selectman. Prior to becoming a reporter, I supported his opponent in their 2022 election and have criticized his performance during the past three years on the board. As a reporter, I documented one of his angry outbursts during a public meeting, where he told a 90-year-old Veteran to “shut it.” You can watch the clip here:

x.com/FallRiverRepor…

Vaught and I had a memorable interaction ourselves at a Somerset Board of Selectman meeting back in September of 2023. I spoke during public input about the unannounced group of over 40 migrant families that had been brought to our small town by the Healey administration and Vaught, a registered Democrat and member of the Somerset Democratic Town Committee, took exception to my comments. An outburst ensued where Vaught yelled at me that he served in the military during wartime and “didn’t see me there.” You can watch the interaction at the link below. Fast forward to the 13 minute mark:

youtube.com/live/Af1_jRwEI…

Needless to say, I do not have a good personal or working relationship with Selectman Vaught so it came as a surprise to me that he was looking to connect with me. I decided to reach out to Selectman Vaught in a friendly way to start the conversation:

I responded to Vaught and told him that I had my reservations about connecting with him but that I was interested in what he had to say. At this point, I considered him a “source” and had complete intentions on keeping whatever he planned on telling me confidential. That changed after I met with him later that day.

We agreed to meet at our local Starbucks later that afternoon at 4:30 PM. I received a text message from him a little past 4 PM stating he was running a little late. I arrived at Starbucks first. Coincidentally, my now-former boss, Mike Silvia, from Fall River Reporter was also there. We often worked out of that Starbucks and he was there working on his laptop.

Vaught arrived a few minutes after me and I introduced him to Mike and we took a seat at a table three seats away. Vaught had ordered a beverage and sat down. He had a backpack with him, which he proceeded to open.

On the table in front of me, Vaught emptied out the contents of his backpack, which I immediately identified as election materials. The first thing I noticed were a banded stack of white postcard like forms that I knew to be voter requests for ballots. I could see the top card and it had a handwritten name and address on it. The next thing I noticed were stacks of what I knew to be envelopes that contained mail-in ballots. I was able to identify these because earlier that fall, I had stood as an observer while Somerset mail-in ballots were being processed by the town clerk and her team. The envelopes were yellow, in stacks of perhaps 25, and had a white sheet with voter names and addresses on it wrapped around the outside. From what I could tell, there were between three and five banded stacks of mail-in ballot envelopes on the the table. The third item I observed was a sealed, grey, plastic package that looked to contain documents. On the outside of the bag, over the sealed area, was a white sticker that said “Republican” and “Precinct 1” on it.

At this time, I became instantly concerned about what I was looking at. I was unable to process why these items were outside the town office building, how Selectman Vaught came to be in possession of them and furthermore, why he was giving them to me.

At this time, I asked some of those questions and Vaught pulled out his cell phone. He then opened up a video on that phone and said he took this video himself. In the video, I could see what I assumed was Vaught, walking down to the basement of the Somerset Town Hall. I have never been in this part of the town hall nor have I ever seen a photo or video of what this area of the town hall looked like.

The video shows Vaught walking through a large room, taking a turn to the right into another room and then approaching a door that says “Town Clerk” on the outside. Vaught opens the door and it is dark. He explains to me, as we watch this part, that this is the area outside another room and shortly I will see him turn on the light. Indeed, I can hear a door open and a light goes on. The video then shows piles of what looks like election materials, including items like the ones Vaught had brought to me.

He told me that he obtained these items himself, from the room he showed me in the video. I asked him why he was down in this part of town hall and he said he was “checking something out” and uncovered that the doors to the room were unlocked. He told me they should have been locked.

I asked Vaught why, instead of bringing this to the attention of the town clerk or the town administrator, did he bring this to me.

He then told me “If you want to get the town clerk, this is how you do it”. Vaught may have been referencing my criticism of the town clerk over her handling of election materials. Last fall, I obtained a video of the assistant town clerk handing ballots on primary day to an election worker, who then drove off with the unsecured ballots in her car to transport them to the voting location. The video went viral and was viewed over 2 million times. You can watch the clip below:

x.com/jessmachadosho…

As our conversation continued, Vaught shared with me that he felt the town clerk was incapable of doing her job. The town clerk position in Somerset is an elected role and subsequently, reports to the Secretary of States office, and no one individual at town hall. I sensed from him that she was making mistakes, not doing her job and that she was being supported by another member of the Selectboard, Jamison Souza, who was empowering the town clerk to continue her not-so-best practices. Vaught also disclosed that a personal business transaction between him and Souza had been a bad experience.

Vaught was referencing that last year, Souza and his wife lent Vaught and his wife money to purchase a home that Vaught flipped and sold. The transaction was uncovered by me and brought to the public during a Board of Selectman’s meeting where both Vaught and Souza defended their partnership and said everything was “above board.”

t this time, I determined that I was most likely in the presence of stolen property, specifically state or national election material and got very nervous. While I could not see if there were actual ballots in front of me, Vaught convinced me that there was.

When I asked him what kind of value these items had, he asked me how voters in Somerset would feel if anyone were able to see who they voted for in the past election. This made me believe there were ballots with voter identifying information in the stacks of documents. He also asked me if the Massachusetts Republican party would want to have the data that he had. I began to feel uncomfortable about what was being suggested, panicked that I was being set up, and shortly after, asked him to please remove the items from the table and secure them in his bag. He did.

At no time did I touch the documents or materials.

We continued to talk for close to two hours, with the majority of the conversation focused on town politics, his potential running for a second term, and strategy options if he did not. For full transparency, I am the chairwoman of the Somerset Republican Town Committee, a group that works to promote conservative programs and helps to elect Republicans to local and state office. This would normally not be an out-of-pocket kind of conversation for me to have with an incumbent or potential candidate.

At the end of our conversation, I told Jacob that I needed to think over what my options were about what he had showed me. Internally, I needed to sit on what he had shown me, try to determine why he approached me and take further steps to protect myself. Vaught and I parted ways. As he left, I extended my hand to shake his and he instead hugged me.

I then walked over to my now-former boss and asked him if he had observed what had transpired and he said that he could see what happened but could not hear. I told him about the ballots and election materials and the video. He asked me what I was going to do and I told him I needed to research if what Vaught had brought me was actually against the law for him to have taken.

Later that evening, Vaught and I had the following text exchange:

The next few days were New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, respectively, so I did not get much work done on this. The following day, Thursday, I began to research if taking those items had been a crime and I was deeply concerned that it had been and that I was now in someway a part of that. Aside from Vaught telling me he wanted the town clerk held accountable for her unprofessionalism, I could not determine what his motive was for giving me this information rather than simply informing the town administrator, town clerk or even the police, himself.

As an investigative journalist, one of my priorities is to keep my sources private. Disclosing where and how I get information is not something I ever do. In this case, my biggest concern was that a law had been broken with the removal of the items from town hall and that election integrity was compromised. I could not make that determination on my own, so I made the decision to call the town administrator.

In a phone call, I shared everything you have read up until this point, with the town administrator.

Five days later, I received the following text from Vaught. I did not receive a response from him and this was the last I heard from him:

I received a phone call from the town administrator who informed me that the Somerset Police Department was now investigating the incident. I was informed that detectives had spoken with management at Starbucks and have asked to view video surveillance of the day in question. I was also informed that video surveillance from town hall has been viewed as well. Since then, I have received an email from the Somerset Chief of Police William Tedford giving me an update on this situation:

As of today, I have not been contacted by the Bristol County District Attorney’s office but Chief Tedford has reached out to see if contact has been made.

This is an breaking story and I will update you as new developments arise.