Congressional candidate and Newton City Councilor Becky Grossman has filed lawsuit with the Supreme Judicial Court to expand the amount of time residents can submit ballots for the Sept. 1 primary, the Globe reports.
Currently, voters are required to get their primary ballots to their local clerks by the close of the polls at 8 p.m. on Sept. 1, Grossman is asking to instead allow any ballots that are postmarked by Sept. 1 and received within 10 days after that to be counted,
The petition has drawn resistance from Secretary of State William Galvin…
“I understand she’s a candidate, and she wants to get some attention for herself,” Galvin said Tuesday after Grossman had announced she intended to file the lawsuit. “But she really would be playing right into the hands of those who would delay the election, playing into the Trump rhetoric . . . about the uncertainty of the process.
“Taking more days from the process is not helpful,” he added. “We’re certainly anxious for every voter to have their ballot cast. But I think the options we’ve given them are there, and I think the suit is ill-advised.”
This is pretty embarrassing. The voters in MA 4 are experiencing some of the lowest incidences of covid in the country and we are certainly able to get to the polls. Those that wish to mail in ballots can easily do so by 9/1.
This smacks not only of attention-getting but giving surrogates more time to slime the frontrunner.
Bill “Prince of Darkness” Galvin, so called because he used to wander the halls of the state house after hours trying to find reporters to talk to, ought to refrain from making judgements about candidates’ desire to “get attention for themselves.”
I tend to agree with Craig. Given the limited time left to campaign in the tight #MA04 race I’m surprised Councilor Grossman is spending valuable time & messaging on this issue. Could it be perhaps she has dropped to 3rd place and is attempting to delegitimize the voting process with her lawsuit? She named 4 or 5 plaintiffs in her lawsuit who have yet to receive their ballots. If those ballots are received, filled out and delivered by 5pm on September 1 what are her damages, what is the equitable relief she is seeking? This is not a class action law suit. I don’t understand her motivation here.
The system worked really well for me. And thankfully, if we receive our absentee ballots late, we can drop them off at City Hall or vote in person, early or on Election Day. Getting my ballot did take 3 weeks, making me anxious. My thanks to Councilor Brenda Noel and City Clerk David Olson, who were more than kind in answering my questions. One can track one’s ballot at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema/track/trackmyballot.aspx
Gloria – I’m surprised you would want to disenfranchise people. Becky’s goal seems simple – that every vote postmarked by September 1, regardless of who they are supporting, should be counted. This is a constitutional right. The postmark date is how the general election is – the primary should be no different.
I haven’t decided who I am supporting, but I have seen Becky lead every poll, and I know you are a Jake supporter, so I have to think you questioning her motivations is driven by your Jake support and nothing else. If you are against counting every vote, should I assume Jake feels the same way?
It’s a simple question – do you agree that counting every vote cast by September 1 should count? If not, why? You may be healthy and easily be able to get to the polls. But remember, there are a lot of people with health and mobility issues. Is it fair that your vote should be more likely to count than theirs?
It seems to me that her request is reasonable, i.e., that any ballot postmarked by Sept. 1 should be counted. Really, what’s the big deal if the official final vote count in a primary election doesn’t come out for a few days after election day? Better to assure that everyone who voted on time has their ballot counted, even if the post office delays delivery after postmarking for a few days.
The Globe explains why it could be a “big deal.”
So this would mean we wouldn’t have a declared candidate until Sept. 11 and if there needed to be any recounts or legal challenges there’d only be one week to do so (and that’s not even counting time to print — and yes mail — the Nov. ballots)
Of course this really points to the problem with holding our primaries in September, rather than sometime sooner as most states do.
First of all, with the post office issues, this seems to me to be reasonable. And it benefits all of the candidates. Why is this negative for this particular candidate? This should be the actual policy. Works in CA…
As for Secretary Galvin, I appreciate his thoughts, but I believe he hasn’t been as proactive as I’d like over the last decade in tearing down impediments to voting. No surprise that he is resistant to change.
@all: If there isn’t an issue Democrats will create one that’s always controversial: Since the founding of our nation people have gone to the polls to vote. The polls will be open, or you can do absentee, so if you don’t get your mail-in ballot then go vote! Also, mailing from your home to the CIty Clerk should take 1 day from dropping it in the box to delivery since the mail isn’t leaving your home town.
Next issue?
@James – if only the mail stream worked that fast. However, I know many people who applied for a ballot more than 2 weeks ago and they still haven’t received it. You seem healthy, which is wonderful. However, there are many older people I know who take their voting rights quite seriously, and are not comfortable going to the polls due to COVID. It seems like counting all ballots postmarked by Sept. 1 is a smart idea. The fact that Grossman is fighting for all voters makes me more likely to support her. Her leadership on this issue is quite impressive.
@Greg – the military vote question is valid, but this is a very early primary – much earlier than most. I trust that Galvin can get it all done in time.
James, I’ve been repeatedly dismayed to find that 1-day local mail delivery is a thing of the distant past, following “network rationalization” that included the elimination of overnight shifts. I’ve had local letters in Needham take 3 business days to reach recipients.
https://www.dispatch.com/article/20150114/news/301149677
NB the “network rationalization” predates Trump, and it ultimately resulted in 5% of projected savings:
https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/10/usps-realized-just-5-percent-projected-savings-slowing-mail-delivery/152143/
A couple of notes:
1. Post marks from Newton boxes will be delivered promptly, however, if they’re post marked from somewhere else, vacation home, etc. then you may have an issue.
2. Secretary of States remarks in this article may stem from the former State Treasurer endorsing his opponent in 2018.
Why can’t the polls be open 3 or 4 days rather than one day? This would allow people to be more spread out for in person voting. We could break up the city population by last name or street name. You could even have outdoor voting at the polling place. Just thinking out loud but I feel like there are other options.
From Mayor Fuller:
In-Person Early Voting Starts Saturday
In-person, early voting for the Sept. 1 state primary election is available daily starting this Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street.
In-person Early Voting – Newton Free Library
Saturday, Aug. 22 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 23 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Monday, Aug. 24 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug.25 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug.26 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 27 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 28 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Where are those polls people are talking about? I only hear rumors about “leaked” internal polls. Looking at what happens at the state and national level, internal polls are so heavily biased towards the sponsor to make them completely useless.
There are eight days for early voting at the Newton Library: Saturday, August 22 to Friday, August 28.
There’s no good reason why Primary elections could not be earlier in the season. All of our campaigns are way too long
Oops! Seven days of early voting.
@Netwtoner, as I mentioned in another thread “Stonehill College Democratic Congressional debate,” there has actually been a genuine poll:
Did the below poll ever get mentioned here? The only viable candidates are Auchincloss and Mermell (I’m a fan of neither). I’d infer from the college/no college breakdown that Mermell has a slight lead in Brookline/Newton/Needham/Wellesley and Auchincloss has a slight lead on the 495 belt.
https://filesforprogress.org/datasets/2020/8/primary_polling/dfp_ma-4.pdf
These are the results from the Data for Progress poll, which does seem to be independent of any campaign:
Jake Auchincloss – 12%
Jesse Mermell – 12%
Becky Grossman – 8%
Natalia Linos – 8%
Ihssane Leckey – 7%
Seems like a 5-way race to me. However, their national polling is heavily biased leftward compared to the overall pollster average, so I would interpret this as a lead for Auchincloss.
https://twitter.com/DataProgress/status/1296098024708624384
…interesting to note, but surely unsurprising to anyone here, is that Auchincloss is outperforming among you 45+’ers.
Among the rest of us, not so well.
As in, tied for fourth place.
And all by himself in fifth place among the under-45 demographic in the merged “original ask” + “leaning” scenario.
Absentee ballots should be accepted if they are postmarked on or before September 1st. The 8 pm deadline is a form of disenfranchisement, period.
Is she suing with the fierceness of a mom looking to get a little boost before Sept 1? 🙂
Kidding aside, really don’t want to wait another 10 days to see who won. Onward and upwards!
PS…where are these prelim polls taking place? We’re a couple of weeks from Sept 1 and have yet to be asked to share my vote (yet get about 2 robo-texts per day).
May the best person win.
I did some digging and here are results with learners from the same poll:
Auchincloss – 14%
Grossman – 13%
Mermell – 13%
Linos – 9%
Leckey – 9%
Khazei – 7%
Cavell (d.o.) – 1%
Sigel – 3%
Zannetos – 1%
No One – 29%
N = 515 | Aug 10-14 | Text-to-Web
@DataProgress Poll
This is a very close race, but likely a 3-way slugfest between Auchincloss, Grossman, Mermell. I wonder how the other 2 feel about Grossman’s lawsuit. Has anyone asked them or their campaigns if they agree that all votes postmarked by 9/1 should count? Seems like it would be hard to explain if they don’t agree with Grossman’s case, as it helps all voters.
If someone wishes to vote there is more than ample time and opportunity to vote. Newton has clearly already made every reasonable accomodation. In person on election day, in person in advance, absentee, a mass mailing to everyone giving the opportunity to request a ballot by mail. In mean, come on…enough already. If at this point someone can’t figure out how to vote, they’re probably not even trying.
As long as every vote is counted and the rules are applied equally…game on and let the best woman or man win.
I also found this article which cites a Leckey poll with Grossman in the lead at 19%, followed by Auchincloss, then Leckey, Mermell, etc: https://theintercept.com/2020/08/11/democrat-massachusetts-4th-congressional-district-primary-ihssane-leckey-dsa/
Reminder: Any decision here could be considered a trial run for November 3rd, 2020, with much bigger stakes on the line.
Every. Single. Ballot. submitted by the state deadline must be counted, no matter what. This means either honoring all ballots postmarked by September 1st, or specifying a state deadline “X days before the general election” (say August 27th for the September 1st Primary) and pledging to count all mailed in ballots postmarked by that date.
Doing anything less would invite significant legal challenges and a potential constitutional crisis. Let alone if the USPS is told to intentionally delay ballots in an attempt to sabotage the outcome of the general election in November.
the folks who say that this is a no brainier still haven’t addressed this from the Globe story…
Call me old fashioned, but I still think we should be following federal law.
Can someone remind me why our primary is in September? Has Galvin ever pushed to change it?
@Gail. I’ve been an advocate for moving the state primary from September to May, but Bill Galvin can’t change it. Only the legislature can.
Here’s a tip: If you have a mail-in ballot and you’ve waited til Election Day (or just before) to mail it, and you’re concerned that the USPS slowdown will take too long to deliver it, then take that ballot to the white, secure “Vote Here” box in front of City Hall instead. It looks like a repainted mailbox (in fact, it is), so it feels just like dropping your ballot in the mail, except that delivery is instantaneous! Much easier than bringing a lawsuit and delaying election results for everyone in the Commonwealth.
@Greg,
I agree with you. And logistically, September 11th is a Friday so presumably those ballots wouldn’t be counted until Monday the 14th, leaving only 4 business days to certify the results and get ballots printed. Going to look at the SJC docket tomorrow as my curiosity is piqued.
I was polled this past week on MA District – 4. When I told the caller who I was voting for they asked if it was firm.
Why would a Democrat want to feed into Trump’s narrative about playing with the date of the election? I guess any press is good press?