INTRO TEXT Voter apathy may have hit a new low in Holliston in May. Even with a Proposition 2 1/2 override of $992,000 on the ballot, only 29 percent of the town’s 9,602 registered voters bothered to turn out. The proposal, meant to forestall cuts in the public school system, lost by 415 votes.

“We did all we could to publicize the vote,” says Town Clerk Jacqueline Dellicker, referring to cable TV commercials, ads in the local newspapers, and banners in front of Town Hall. “But maybe we need to do a better job getting people to the polls.”

With override fatigue gripping communities (unofficially, there have been 41 override campaigns across Massachusetts this year, with 20 of them passing), many local advocates are starting to recognize that they need outside help getting out the vote. Some are seeking out training from experts on how to run a campaign themselves. Others are bringing in hired guns to run campaigns for them.

“There are communities that have hired campaign consultants,” says Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “But, if it’s a trend, it’s in places more likely to have disposable income and higher campaign budgets. Successful campaigns are usually homegrown.”

Homegrown campaigns often work if a lightening-rod issue is on the ballot, but when the issues are more mundane, it isn’t so easy, particularly when voters are working long hours or are newcomers to politics. An alternative, at least on one end of the ideological spectrum, is One Massachusetts, which provides free training sessions for groups organizing Proposition 2 1/2 override campaigns. The year-old, Boston–based nonprofit was spun off from the Public Policy Institute, a liberal group that promotes community activism.

Colleen Corona, a member of the leadership team at One Massachusetts and chairman of the board of selectmen in Easton, remembers the “Eureka!” moment she had in 2006, when receiving invaluable tips from a campaign manager working for an elected official. At the time, Corona was organizing a Proposition 2 1/2 override campaign in her hometown.

“The information got us going, and without it we could not have run our campaign,” she says. “I realized that I wanted to help other struggling campaigns in any way I could.”

Corona now heads up training sessions with other One Massachusetts members and speaks on panels about how to run grass-roots campaigns. “Overrides can be exhausting and divisive, but they are important,” she says.

At the training sessions, which are open to anyone trying to run an override campaign, strategists and state budget experts offer practical information on where a town’s money comes from, how to craft an effective message, how to work with a database of registered voters, and how to target town precincts and organize teams.

Natick activists took part in the One Massachusetts campaign training, and they ultimately prevailed at the polls when voters approved a $3.9 million Proposition 2 1/2 override in March.

“We went from a group of energetic people who didn’t really know what we were doing to an efficient, well-run campaign. And we could not have done it without the training,” says David Margil, co-chairman of the Yes for Natick committee.

But some citizen groups have skipped the do-it-yourself approach and instead brought in experts. For example, after several failed override attempts in Winchester, a group of residents decided in 2002 to bring in outside help.

Ed Delaney, a technology executive and Winchester resident, says there was a solid cross section of residents who supported a $4.5 million override to preserve town and school services, but they lacked a focused plan of action.

“What we really needed was professional outside help to form a clear strategy,” he says. “There had been too many rejected overrides, and we had to try something new.”

The group raised private money to pay the “low six-figure” fee of Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, a public relations firm in Boston that has long had success waging statewide referendum campaigns. In order not to incite the Winchester residents on the “no” side of the override vote, Rasky Baerlein ran a stealth campaign, which meant no media publicity and no volunteers walking the streets holding signs. The firm identified precincts in Winchester that had voted for overrides in the past and organized volunteers into teams that used phone banks and direct mail to spread the advantages of passing the override. Rasky Baerlein also provided transportation to the polls for voters. The result was a more motivated voter base for passing the override, which prevailed with 57 percent of the vote.

Joseph Baerlein, president of Rasky Baerlein, says municipal ballot campaigns have become a growing segment of the firm’s business. Last year, it worked on behalf of a real estate development project in Sharon, helping to win a two-thirds majority vote at town meeting for an article relating to a zoning change for a senior citizen living complex.

In May, the firm was hired by the Westwood Board of Selectman and paid with grant money from Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, the developer of Westwood Station, a mile-long development of stores and homes. The firm’s job was to do the opposite of what it did in a 2006 ballot initiative, when it was hired by Massachusetts retail package stores to defeat a ballot question that would have allowed more supermarkets to sell wine. This time, it was charged with winning approval of a liquor license to help lure a supermarket tenant to the Westwood project.

Town meeting approved the community’s first carry-out alcohol license by a 410-to-372 vote. The board of selectmen and the developer are now negotiating with Wegmans, the New York–based grocery store chain, to open a store with the liquor license as part of the project.

Baerlein predicts that as fiscal and zoning fights in towns increasingly become political issues, more activist groups will look to third parties to help motivate voters.

“That often equates to a private entity in the town who says, ‘We need to raise some dollars to get this done,’” he says. “Civic activity can only go so far in getting votes.”

Shane O’Neill is a freelance writer living in South Boston.