Towns see spike in mail-in ballots, prepare for early voting

Oct. 6, 2020 | Sarah Heinonen
sarah@thereminder.com

WESTERN MASS – This presidential election will be like none other, in large part due to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many voters are choosing to request mail-in ballots to avoid the potential crowds at polling places this Nov. 3.

Easthampton has received requests for mail-in ballots from about half of its 12,500 registered voters. “In a normal election, I’d get maybe 300,” Town Clerk Barbara LaBombard said. In East Longmeadow and Longmeadow, which each have roughly 12,000 registered voters, about 5,000 people have requested mail-in ballots from each community. Similarly, in West Springfield, about 5,000 of the town’s 18,000 voters have requested a ballot by mail, while larger cities such as Chicopee and Westfield have seen between 8,000 and 8,500 requests from their voters, which number approximately 37,000 and 25,000, respectively.

Otto Frizzell, town clerk in West Springfield, said that his office had received calls from people concerned about the security and process of mail-in ballots.

“It certainly has been politicized,” Frizzell said of the ballots. “I know people are concerned, but we do everything we can to ensure the security of the ballots. I have no doubt in the security of the process.”

Chicopee City Clerk Keith Rattell agreed. “It’s a pretty secure process,” he said. “We’re using the same process as for absentee ballots.”

Once a resident requests a ballot, which can be done by calling their town or city clerk, or at www.sec.state.ma.us/ele, the form will come in the mail with two envelopes. After filling out the ballot, it is placed in the first envelope, which has a place to write the voter’s name and information, and sealed. It then goes into the second, addressed envelope. The ballot can be mailed or dropped in secure boxes in most municipalities.

Ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3, though they have until Nov. 6 to reach the clerk’s office.

“I definitely think it’ll take longer to count,” due to the volume of mail-in ballots, said Mary O’Connor with the East Longmeadow town clerk’s office, but Longmeadow Town Clerk Kathy Ingram disagrees. “They’re giving additional time to be mailed, but we’ll have a good idea that night,” Ingram said.

One of the reasons Ingram is confident that the town will know it’s results on election night is because the state has allowed municipalities to pre-count mail-in ballots. Rather than open the sealed envelopes on Election Day, cities and towns have the option to begin counting the mail-in ballots in the days before the election.

LaBombard explained that Easthampton will begin pre-casting the mail-in ballots they have received on Oct. 26. She said that it was successfully done that way during the Sept. 1 primary election. “It made it much easier that [poll workers] didn’t have to haul 6,000 ballots to the polls,” she said.

LaBombard said that the only votes that will be left to count after election night are those mail-in ballots they receive in the mail between Election Day and Nov. 6 and overseas ballots, but that the vast majority of people will have either sent their ballots in early, voted on Election Day or participated in early voting.

This is the second presidential election in which early voting has been allowed in the state. This year, early voting runs from Oct. 17 through Oct. 30. Voters can find their early voting locations and the scheduled hours of operation at www.MassEarlyVote.com beginning on Oct. 9.

“In September, the majority of votes, I’d say a 60/40 split, were cast early. I expect it to be the same in November,” said Frizzell. Westfield City Clerk Karen Fanion said that, during the primary, the city saw 60 to 65 people voting on each of the early voting days.

Due to the coronavirus, Rattell said, the state has allowed for the elimination of check-out lines. Residents will still need to provide their address to a poll worker before receiving a ballot, but will not have to do so again on the way out. “That should expedite the process and it’ll eliminate some of the poll workers people come in contact with,” he said.

Rattell continued, “People should feel safe when they go to vote.” He said they aren’t in any more danger than when they go shopping. Frizzell said that all poll workers have personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks and sneeze guards. The polls are also spaced out and hand sanitizer is available.

Oct. 24 is the last day to register to vote in Massachusetts. To register to vote, or for more information on voting, visit www.sec.state.ma.us/ele.

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