Problems with mail-in ballots trickle in, but Charlie Baker, election officials ‘confident’ in process
Voters are questioning the integrity of the mail-in voting process in Massachusetts as problems pop up amid a massive expansion of the system during the coronavirus pandemic, even as state officials continue to voice their confidence.
“I think the integrity of the process, with respect to how the state set it up, is actually quite high,” Gov. Charlie Baker said on Tuesday of the mail-in voting system rolled out by the Secretary of State’s office this year.
On the day before the primary, a record 676,000 voters had cast their ballots by mail.
Secretary of State William Galvin — the state’s chief elections official — said a number of “administrative problems” — mostly due to human error — were identified in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 1 primary, but said on Monday he has “confidence” in the system and in the state’s elections workers.
Several dozen voters in Brookline received ballots for the wrong primary in early August — an error that was caught, publicized and corrected, according to Galvin’s office. Other isolated incidents have also popped up here and there.
“Whoever was stuffing the envelopes grabbed the wrong ballot and mailed it to me,” Benjamin Forsdick of Brighton told the Herald on Tuesday. “It’s very distressing. … I don’t know if this happened to dozens of people, just to myself or hundreds or thousands of people. It could have a profound effect if it was widespread.”
When Forsdick realized the ballot mailed to him was for the wrong precinct, he opted to vote in person — an option for anyone who requested but did not return a mail-in ballot.
Forsdick said he was “distressed” by what he called a “lack of troubleshooting” by the Boston Election Department.
Debra O’Malley, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s office, said vote tabulators at polling locations would detect any mail-in ballots sent in by voters from the wrong precinct as they are counted. All offices for which that voter was eligible to vote would still be counted, O’Malley said.
Dorchester voter Raj Jawa said his attempt to vote by mail was thwarted by the U.S. Postal Service. After mailing his ballot two weeks ago, the Boston Election Department had still not received his ballot as of Tuesday.
Galvin on Monday said widespread issues of mail slowdowns happening nationally had been largely avoided in Massachusetts, noting he’d seen “great cooperation” locally.
In Saugus, Jeremy Martin received a ballot from the Baltimore, Md., elections department addressed to his single-family residence but for someone who doesn’t live there.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3bplKQb
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