Boston voters won’t mail it in, opt for in-person polls

Worried voters said ballots never came in the mail or they simply couldn’t trust that their vote would be accurately counted in this election.

So they masked up and hoofed it out to the polls to cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary election — even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“As far as mail-in balloting, any thinking person knows that it’s full of holes: the fraud factor, the idea that you can put in anybody’s name. I went there in-person, checked off the names, put it in myself,” said 67-year-old retired police officer John McDonough after voting in West Roxbury.

Even 85-year-old Leo Entwisgle — squarely in the at-risk COVID-19 demographic — said he was too worried about going uncounted in this election if he voted by mail.

“I wanted to be sure I voted. There was some talk about getting the mail-ins on time. So the only way to get counted for certain is to come,” Entwisgle, a Kennedy supporter, told the Herald.

Entwisgle wore a mask along with his “I Voted” sticker, and said he wasn’t worried about his own safety voting in-person.

“If I haven’t been knocked out of the game yet — no, I won’t be,” he said.

Voters treated Tuesday’s primary election with grave responsibility.

“It determines the future course of our country,” 78-year-old David Blumenthal said after casting his ballot in West Roxbury.

But the local mail-in system failed Blumenthal, who said he had hoped he and his wife could avoid the polls on Election Day. He never received his ballot in the mail, and when his wife called the election commission, he said they got no help.

So they both donned their masks, hand sanitizer, and went into the gym at Holy Name Parish School Tuesday morning.

Other voters who originally intended to vote by mail discovered that while the practice sounded good in theory, they couldn’t make it work for them in real life.

“Truthfully, I missed the deadline with absentee voting,” said 27-year-old Sen. Ed Markey supporter, Sophie Lazar.

Lazar said the experience at Holy Name — a large, open gymnasium — felt safe and comfortable.

Voting booths were spaced many feet apart, and everything was sanitized after use, right down to the pens. Poll workers made hand sanitizer readily available, and waiting lines were nonexistent. Most voters breezed in and out of the building in the matter of a few minutes.

“People were wearing masks, people were very attentive about public health,” she said.

Markey supporter Emily Engler admitted she didn’t realize she had missed the deadline to mail in her ballot until the mayor’s office sent her a robocall Friday reminding her that it was her last day to send her vote in.

“It was sitting on my desk sadly. I had just not gotten it into the mail,” she said.

Blumenthal said that if he could actually get the mail-in ballot in his own mailbox first, he would consider trying it for the general election in November.

“If in fact they can get the paper system to work properly so that we get out ballots in time, I’d be happy to use it,” he said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/32MaFVw