Thông cáo báo chí
80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote
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.
Trân trọng,
Pam Wilmot, Tổ chức Common Cause Massachusetts
Rahsaan Hall, ACLU của Massachusetts
Janet Domenitz, MASSPIRG
Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, MassVOTE
Patricia Comfort, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts
Beth Huang, Bảng cử tri Massachusetts
Sophia Hall, Luật sư vì Quyền Dân sự
Chrissy Lynch, AFL-CIO
Marvin Martin, Hành động vì Công bằng
Beth Kontos, Liên đoàn Giáo viên Hoa Kỳ-MA
Jeff Clements, Lời hứa của người Mỹ
Tanisha Arena, Đứng lên vì Công lý xã hội
Priscilla Flint-Banks, Liên minh COVID19 của người da đen Boston
Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, Mạng lưới đạo diễn da đen
Larry Banks, Black Economic Justice Institute
Mục sư David Wright, Liên minh Mục sư Da đen của Greater Boston, Inc.
Spencer Brown và Eve Seitchik, Những người Xã hội Dân chủ Boston của Hoa Kỳ
Rev. David Wright, Boston Ten Point Coalition
Nia Evans, Dự án Ujima ở Boston
Phyllis Neufeld, Ủy ban thị trấn dân chủ Burlington
David J. Harris, Charles Hamilton Viện Houston về Chủng tộc và Công lý
Gladys Vega, Chelsea Collaborative
Lisa Owens, Cuộc sống thành phố Vida Urbana
Mục sư June Cooper, City Mission, Inc.
Deb Fastino, Coalition for Social Justice
Gail Latimore, Quảng trường Codman NDC
Alan Epstein, Criminal Justice Reform Task Force of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek
Madeline Hertz, Trung tâm Chính sách Dân chủ
Elizabeth Henry, Liên đoàn Môi trường Massachusetts
Adam Eichen, Công dân bình đẳng
Katrinia Shaw, Ngôi nhà Tự do
Samuel M. Gebru, Công dân thế hệ Massachusetts
Beverly Williams and Rev. Burns Stanfield, The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization
Charlene Greene, Hội đồng quốc gia của phụ nữ da đen khu vực Greater Boston
Carla Cooper, Không thể chia cắt Martha's Vineyard
Debbie Paul, Liên minh quần chúng không thể chia cắt
Laurie Veninger, Mũi đất ngoài không thể chia cắt
Nadeem Mazen, Jetpac
Cindy Rowe, Liên minh Do Thái vì Luật pháp và Hành động Xã hội
Aaron Agulnek, Hội đồng quan hệ cộng đồng Do Thái của vùng Boston
Joyce Hackett, Lift+Every+Vote
David A. Bryant, MA Hiệp hội các công ty phát triển cộng đồng
Javier Gutierrez, Công ty Phát triển Công viên Madison
Michael Kane, Liên minh đại chúng của người thuê nhà HUD
Janine Carreiro, Mass Communities Action Network
Thomas Callahan, Liên minh nhà ở giá rẻ Massachusetts
Cassandra Bensahih, Massachusetts phản đối việc giam giữ biệt lập
Georgia Katsoulomitis, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Eva A. Millona, Liên minh bảo vệ người nhập cư và tị nạn Massachusetts
Andrea Burns, Hành động vì hòa bình của Massachusetts
Celia J. Blue, Liên minh Phụ nữ da màu Massachusetts
Emily Ruddock, MASSCreative
Phillip Kassel, Ủy ban cố vấn pháp lý về sức khỏe tâm thần
MITvote Executive Board, MITvote
Sue Swanson, Những bà mẹ ở phía trước
Juan M. Cofield, NAACP- Hội nghị khu vực New England
Tanisha Sullivan, Chi nhánh NAACP-Boston
Rebekah Gewirtz, Hiệp hội Công nhân Xã hội Quốc gia, Chi nhánh MA
Maria Elena Letona, Hàng xóm của Hàng xóm Massachusetts
Brian Miller, Phiếu bầu phi lợi nhuận
Zac Bears, PHENOM
Mehreen Butt, Kế hoạch hóa gia đình
John Lippitt, Đảng Dân chủ Tiến bộ của Massachusetts
Russell Freedman, Tiến bộ vì nền dân chủ ở Hoa Kỳ
Fred Van Deusen, Đòi lại nền dân chủ của chúng ta
Filipe Zamborlini, Nơi của Rosie
Shana Bryant, Dịch vụ tư vấn Shana Bryant
Deb Pasternak, Chi nhánh Sierra Club Massachusetts
Frances Moore Lappé, Viện Hành tinh Nhỏ
Anika Van Eaton, Somerville Democratic City Committee
Michael Chen, Phong trào Sunrise Boston
Mark Haidar, Dự án Dân chủ Bình đẳng tại Trường Luật Harvard
Shahara Jaghoo, Đường ống dẫn nước cho sự thay đổi của phụ nữ
Claire Miller, Toxics Action Center
Aziza Robinson-Goodnight, Dự án Văn hóa Chuyển đổi
Horace Small, Liên minh các khu phố thiểu số
Laura Wagner MSW, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
George Pillsbury, Lựa chọn của cử tri cho Massachusetts năm 2020
Isabel Gonzalez-Webster, Liên tôn Worcester
Lezlie Braxton Campbell, Young Democrats of Massachusetts
YWCA Malden
Jordan Latham, YWCA Đông Nam Massachusetts
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.