80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote
Ahead of Tuesday’s Senate vote, the Election Modernization Coalition and 80 Massachusetts organizations sent a letter to the Senate in support of S. 2755 and three amendments to strengthen protections for voters and elections administrators.

The groups praised the bill as “critical and significant,” but said that the bill requires three “crucial amendments.” These amendments, numbers 3, 8, and 33, would:

• ensure that the Secretary of the Commonwealth creates an effective online portal for requesting ballots,
• ensure that all ballots sent on or before election day in November are counted, and
• expand the deadline for requesting absentee ballots.

Forty-one amendments have been filed by state Senators in advance of Tuesday’s vote.

“The legislation that the Senate will be considering is very close to what the House passed last week,” said Common Cause Massachusetts Executive Director Pam Wilmot. “It is very strong and will go a long way towards making sure that every voter can safely cast a ballot in our fall elections. But we urge the Senate to adopt three amendments. With those changes, this bill will ensure that Bay Staters – who may otherwise have been prevented from casting a ballot by the coronavirus pandemic – can exercise their fundamental right to participate in our democracy.”

“From the importance of this November’s election and the true threats that COVID-19 presents to it, the stakes for our elections have never been higher. But add to that the renewed urgency that the past weeks’ protests bring to the fight to hold government accountable – it has never been more important that every eligible voter can make their voice heard. With these amendments, S. 2755 will do just that,” Wilmot said.

Full sign-on letter below.

June 11, 2020

Dear President Spilka and members of the Senate,

Last week the House passed a strong elections bill, H. 4778, to help protect voters and election workers from the coronavirus this fall. The legislation will help every voter who wants to cast a ballot from the safety of their own home to do so and will help ensure that our election system is prepared for a tsunami of mail ballots. With its swift action, the House recognized the need to move quickly to help keep voters safe and to adapt our election procedures accordingly.

The bill requires the Secretary of State to mail ballot applications to all voters for the first time. This change, along with the establishment of an online portal for requesting ballots, expanding early voting, and other reforms in the legislation, is critical and significant.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee bill, S. 2755, only made a few small changes. However, one change is problematic and the Committee did not fix two issues we had identified with the House Bill. Accordingly, we have filed three amendments that we believe are crucial, and we think will be acceptable to the House. We are reviewing other amendments and may support others, but have identified the following as our collective priorities:

· Amendment #33, Senator Comerford: Expanded deadline for requesting a ballot. The Senate bill expands the blackout period when voters can no longer request a mail ballot. While we recognize that the current deadline of only a few hours before the election is too short, the seven days proposed by the Senate Ways and Means bill is too long and puts us behind 22 other states that are more generous to voters. The House bill language strikes the right balance for the 2020 elections by requiring the receipt of ballot requests by noon of the Friday before the elections, although it inexplicably created a different deadline for 2021 and beyond. This amendment would keep the Friday deadline for elections in 2020 and going forward and thereby allow more people to cast a mail ballot.

· Amendment #8, Senator Hinds: Postmarked Ballots. Our second amendment addresses a deficit in the House and now the Senate bill regarding ballots received after Election Day. Massachusetts must ensure that ballots mailed by Election Day in November are counted, even if they arrive a few days after the polls close. Given the expected dramatic increase in the volume of mail-in ballots and a postal service that is not performing at peak capacity, extending the deadline is critical to help ensure that tens of thousands of voters are not disenfranchised. Seventeen other states, including California, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, already follow this rule to make sure that every vote counts in all of their elections. Many other states will adopt temporary orders to do the same. For our primary election, mailed ballots will still have to be received by Election Day because of a tight deadline for printing the November election ballot. But this is an important reform for November. The problem this amendment addresses is the postmark requirement in both the House and Senate bills. Many pieces of mail, including all metered mail, do not get postmarked, so by requiring a postmark, the current bill will cause tens of thousands of ballots properly mailed and received by the deadline to remain uncounted. The amendment allows evidence other than postmarks to prove the date of mailing, which other states have been doing for many years. This amendment will help ensure that ballots with missing or illegible postmarks are not disregarded.

· Amendment #3, Senator Lesser: Online Portal. Our third amendment strengthens the bill’s language establishing an online portal so that Massachusetts voters have a safe and easy means of requesting a mail ballot. The portal will also ensure that our local election officials have less work processing paper applications. We remain very concerned about the clerks’ workload in the fall. Processing a ten- to twenty-fold increase in mail ballot applications and then processing the returned ballots has crushed election officials in other states this spring, even in relatively low-turnout elections. Massachusetts already has similar online portals including the current online voter registration system. The amendment will create an affirmative duty to create the mail-in ballot request portal and will clarify that a signature is not required to access it. Massachusetts’ other portals, such as online voter registration, use personal identifying information. Requiring a signature would be difficult if not impossible to implement. Many other states including Maine, Vermont, and New York have portals. Idaho developed one in three weeks. They do not require signatures.

Please join us in supporting these amendments to the bill so that the Commonwealth can conduct fair and accessible elections this fall without risking public health. The clock is ticking, and every week we delay is one lost for election officials to implement these important reforms.

ईमानदारी से,

पाम विल्मोट, कॉमन कॉज मैसाचुसेट्स
रहसान हॉल, ACLU, मैसाचुसेट्स
जेनेट डोमेनित्ज़, मासपिरग
चेरिल क्लाइबर्न क्रॉफोर्ड, मैसवोट
Patricia Comfort, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts
बेथ हुआंग, मैसाचुसेट्स मतदाता तालिका
सोफिया हॉल, नागरिक अधिकारों के लिए वकील
Chrissy Lynch, AFL-CIO
मार्विन मार्टिन, एक्शन फॉर इक्विटी
बेथ कोंटोस, अमेरिकन फेडरेशन ऑफ टीचर्स-एमए
जेफ क्लेमेंट्स, अमेरिकन प्रॉमिस
तनिषा एरेना, एराइज फॉर सोशल जस्टिस
प्रिसिला फ्लिंट-बैंक्स, ब्लैक बोस्टन COVID19 गठबंधन
चेरिल क्लाइबर्न क्रॉफोर्ड, ब्लैक डायरेक्टर्स नेटवर्क
Larry Banks, Black Economic Justice Institute
रेव. डेविड राइट, ब्लैक मिनिस्टीरियल अलायंस ऑफ ग्रेटर बोस्टन, इंक.
स्पेंसर ब्राउन और ईव सेइचिक, बोस्टन डेमोक्रेटिक सोशलिस्ट्स ऑफ अमेरिका
Rev. David Wright, Boston Ten Point Coalition
निया इवांस, बोस्टन उजिमा प्रोजेक्ट
फिलिस न्यूफेल्ड, बर्लिंगटन डेमोक्रेटिक टाउन कमेटी
डेविड जे. हैरिस, चार्ल्स हैमिल्टन ह्यूस्टन इंस्टीट्यूट फॉर रेस एंड जस्टिस
ग्लेडिस वेगा, चेल्सी कोलैबोरेटिव
लिसा ओवेन्स, सिटी लाइफ विदा अर्बाना
रेव. जून कूपर, सिटी मिशन, इंक.
Deb Fastino, Coalition for Social Justice
गेल लैटिमोर, कोडमैन स्क्वायर एनडीसी
Alan Epstein, Criminal Justice Reform Task Force of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek
मैडलिन हर्ट्ज़, डेमोक्रेटिक पॉलिसी सेंटर
एलिजाबेथ हेनरी, मैसाचुसेट्स पर्यावरण लीग
एडम ईचेन, समान नागरिक
कैटरीना शॉ, फ्रीडम हाउस
सैमुअल एम. गेब्रू, जनरेशन सिटिजन मैसाचुसेट्स
Beverly Williams and Rev. Burns Stanfield, The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization
चार्लेन ग्रीन, ग्रेटर बोस्टन सेक्शन-नेशनल काउंसिल ऑफ नीग्रो वीमेन
कार्ला कूपर, इंडिविज़िबल मार्थाज़ वाइनयार्ड
डेबी पॉल, इंडिविज़िबल मास कोलिशन
लॉरी वेनिंगर, इंडिविज़िबल आउटर केप
नदीम माज़ेन, जेटपैक
सिंडी रोवे, यहूदी कानून और सामाजिक कार्य गठबंधन
आरोन अगुलनेक, यहूदी सामुदायिक संबंध परिषद ग्रेटर बोस्टन
Joyce Hackett, Lift+Every+Vote
डेविड ए. ब्रायंट, एम.ए. एसोसिएशन ऑफ कम्युनिटी डेवलपमेंट कॉरपोरेशन
जेवियर गुटिरेज़, मैडिसन पार्क डेवलपमेंट कॉर्पोरेशन
माइकल केन, HUD किरायेदारों का सामूहिक गठबंधन
Janine Carreiro, Mass Communities Action Network
थॉमस कैलाहन, मैसाचुसेट्स अफोर्डेबल हाउसिंग अलायंस
कैसंड्रा बेनसाहिह, मैसाचुसेट्स एकांत कारावास के खिलाफ
Georgia Katsoulomitis, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
ईवा ए. मिलोना, मैसाचुसेट्स आप्रवासी और शरणार्थी वकालत गठबंधन
एंड्रिया बर्न्स, मैसाचुसेट्स पीस एक्शन
सेलिया जे. ब्लू, मैसाचुसेट्स वूमेन ऑफ कलर कोएलिशन
Emily Ruddock, MASSCreative
फिलिप कैसल, मानसिक स्वास्थ्य कानूनी सलाहकार समिति
MITvote Executive Board, MITvote
सू स्वानसन, मदर्स आउट फ्रंट
जुआन एम. कोफील्ड, NAACP- न्यू इंग्लैंड एरिया कॉन्फ्रेंस
तनिषा सुलिवान, NAACP-बोस्टन शाखा
रेबेका गेवर्ट्ज़, नेशनल एसोसिएशन ऑफ सोशल वर्कर्स, एमए चैप्टर
मारिया एलेना लेटोना, पड़ोसी से पड़ोसी मैसाचुसेट्स
ब्रायन मिलर, नॉनप्रॉफिट वोट
जैक बियर्स, फेनोम
मेहरीन बट, प्लांड पैरेंटहुड
जॉन लिपिट, मैसाचुसेट्स के प्रगतिशील डेमोक्रेट
रसेल फ्रीडमैन, अमेरिका में लोकतंत्र के लिए प्रगतिशील
फ्रेड वान ड्यूसेन, हमारी लोकतंत्र को पुनः प्राप्त करें
फ़िलिप ज़ाम्बोरलिनी, रोज़ीज़ प्लेस
शाना ब्रायंट, शाना ब्रायंट कंसल्टिंग सर्विसेज
डेब पास्टर्नक, सिएरा क्लब मैसाचुसेट्स चैप्टर
फ़्रांसिस मूर लप्पे, स्मॉल प्लैनेट इंस्टीट्यूट
Anika Van Eaton, Somerville Democratic City Committee
माइकल चेन, सनराइज मूवमेंट बोस्टन
मार्क हैदर, हार्वर्ड लॉ स्कूल में समान लोकतंत्र परियोजना
शाहरा जाघू, बदलाव के लिए महिलाओं की पाइपलाइन
Claire Miller, Toxics Action Center
अजीज़ा रॉबिन्सन-गुडनाइट, ट्रांसफॉर्मेटिव कल्चर प्रोजेक्ट
होरेस स्मॉल, यूनियन ऑफ माइनॉरिटी नेबरहुड्स
Laura Wagner MSW, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
जॉर्ज पिल्सबरी, मैसाचुसेट्स 2020 के लिए मतदाता विकल्प
इसाबेल गोंजालेज-वेबस्टर, वॉर्सेस्टर इंटरफेथ
Lezlie Braxton Campbell, Young Democrats of Massachusetts
वाईडब्ल्यूसीए माल्डेन
जॉर्डन लैथम, YWCA दक्षिणपूर्वी मैसाचुसेट्स
Whitney Mooney, YWCA Cambridge

The Election Modernization Coalition is comprised of the ACLU of Massachusetts, Common Cause Massachusetts, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, Lawyers for Civil Rights, MASSPIRG, MassVOTE, and the Massachusetts Voter Table. The Coalition’s longstanding goals include ensuring elections are accessible, participatory, accurate, and safe.

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