Mail-in ballot ‘confusion,’ voter ID laws top list of complaints on Massachusetts voter hotline
Confusion over mail-in ballots, voter ID laws and electioneering topped the list of complaints from the more than 415 calls that poured into the Massachusetts Election Protection Coalition voter hotline on what was overall a “smooth” day.
“The top line is that this it’s been very smooth in Massachusetts,” said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts — one of six organizations that make up the nonpartisan election coalition. “There have been issues we are dealing with as we do in every election, but given the volume, given the contentiousness … it’s been a very good day so far.”
Wilmot said it was a trend she expected to continue late into the night.
Despite a number of complaints, Rahsaan Hall of the ACLU said the “vast majority” of calls were from voters with questions about registration and where and how they could vote.
Sophia Hall of Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston said mail-in ballots “continue to be a source of confusion.” At several polling places in Lawrence, voters who requested mail-in ballots were turned away in error. People who requested but didn’t return mail-in ballots may vote in-person on Election Day, she said.
The hotline fielded several complaints over voter ID violations allegedly targeting Latinos at the English High School polling location in Jamaica Plain Tuesday morning, as well as two polling places in Lawrence.
“The huge red flag today is that every single report has been a Latino-appearing person or someone with an accent. Clearly, that’s problematic because it tells me it’s happening in a discriminatory way,” Hall said.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth investigated the complaints. A spokeswoman said poll workers were inadvertently asking for IDs during the check-in process and were told to stop.
“In Lawrence, the issue was not poll workers asking for ID, but a campaign observer who was then removed from the polling location,” spokeswoman Debra O’Malley said.
Callers also reported “aggressive” Trump electioneering, particularly in Dartmouth and Lawrence. In several cases police and poll workers wrongfully removed voters wearing clothing with Black Lives Matter insignias. BLM materials are not considered campaign slogans and voters should not be stopped for wearing them, according to Hall.
Broken machine issues were reported in Lynn, Lawrence and Randolph, but technicians were quickly dispatched, Wilmot said.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3kX55au
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