More than two dozen main ballots had been rejected as a result of the voter was useless, amongst 1000’s tossed by the Secretary of State’s workplace throughout the first statewide election since mail-in voting was made everlasting.
“While we always want to keep our rejection rate as low as possible, in many cases, the number of rejected ballots shows that the systems we have in place are working,” a spokesperson for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s workplace informed the Herald Tuesday.
Of 4,838,359 eligible voters, only one,052,414 forged a poll in one of many two-party primaries, an general turnout of 21.8%, in accordance with knowledge Galvin’s workplace shared. Mail-in and early voting accounted for simply over half of votes forged by a margin of 5,693 votes.
More than 11,000 ballots needed to be rejected throughout the mail-in course of, in accordance with Galvin’s workplace.
That quantity could appear small, however it’s a trigger for concern for opponents of mail-in voting. Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl’s marketing campaign says they see any rejected ballots as an issue.
“Geoff Diehl and Leah Allen are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections, and it has been their longstanding belief that mail-in voting presents a concern. The high number of mail-in ballots rejected during the recent primary is concrete evidence that they’re right to be worried about the process. Whenever there is evidence that voters’ choices might not be registered when they vote, or that votes could be tabulated inaccurately, that is immediate cause for worry,” Campaign Manager Amanda Orlando stated.
She stated it’s a priority that isn’t going to go away.
“Democrats on Beacon Hill made mail-in voting permanent this year without conducting any meaningful review of the process from when it was first used, and without instituting any additional safeguards to ensure election integrity. This will continue to present a question and cause for concern not just with the upcoming election, but with any future election in which mail-in voting is used,” she stated.
Though the information exhibits 32 voters had been made ineligible after they died after requesting a poll and 327 mail-in candidates had already voted, Galvin’s workplace stated no illegalities have been proven.
“There is no indication in the data of any unlawful voting. That likely would have been brought to our attention once the clerk detected it,” the spokesperson stated. “When a ballot is rejected, that is itself a check against any unlawful voting.”
A useless voter isn’t essentially disqualified from voting, in the event that they did so earlier than they died, Galvin’s workplace stated.
“A ballot is typically rejected as ‘deceased’ because the clerk learned of the voter’s death after the ballot was already mailed. If a ballot were to come back from a deceased voter, the clerk would check the date of voting and postmark to see if the voter cast it before they died. A ballot can be counted as long as the voter was alive when they cast it,” the spokesperson stated.
Most rejected ballots, about 8,000, merely arrived too late.
“Ballots arriving too late to be counted continues to be the most common reason for rejection,” Galvin’s workplace stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”