SWANSEA — Voters today will elect a new selectman to fill the two-year seat vacated by Andrew Prete. Kenneth Furtado and Patrick Higgins are vying for the position, after Prete resigned late last year from the three-member board for an expected family move to Barrington.

Voters will go to one polling place: Joseph Case High School. The polling place is open from noon to 8 p.m.

Furtado has served on the Advisory and Finance Committee for four years, the Town Administrator Search Committee, the Swansea Ambulance Corps Board of Directors for 10 years, among others, as well as with the town’s Little League, youth basketball and soccer leagues, according to campaign Web site information. He founded and is president of OCI Software, a software design and development company.

Furtado, who graduated from the UMass Dartmouth with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, states he is “dedicated to help our seniors preserve their quality of life and will work to create a permanent and safe senior center in town.” He stressed his experience in financial matters, saying that “with the budget season approaching, it’s imperative to have a comprehensive knowledge of the budget process and the experience to address the important issues in preparation for Annual Town Meeting.”

Higgins states on his campaign Web site that one priority is to use a grant received by the town for what he says it was intended: repairing the Bluffs senior center. He wants to address sewage problems in the Bluffs, Smokerise and Mountfair Circle areas of town and states he will not accept additional delays in repairing a sewer problem at the Town Hall annex. And he sees as a goal working with the other selectmen to “bring back public input at each and every meeting of the board.”

Higgins states he would continue efforts to make all town-owned buildings handicapped-accessible — he includes on his Web site several photos of buildings that currently fail to meet that. He also states he would fight to get rules in place to allow for opening a new cemetery that he says has been ready for months. Higgins is an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church.

Both candidates graduated from Joseph Case High School in 1975.

To compel the special election, resident petitioners were required to hand in at least 200 voters’ signatures. That came after the two sitting selectmen, Joseph Senna and Robert Marquis, could not agree whether to call the special election.

Prete resigned in December in part because of the move to Barrington but also because of what he called a toll the position had exacted on him and his family. Prete, a lawyer who was selectman vice chairman, had been elected four years earlier. In announcing he would step down, Prete stated in a letter that his goal had been “to help resurrect Swansea’s future by being fair-minded and reasonable.”

mmckinne@projo.com