City Councilor Matt O’Malley: Boston must be ready for elections during COVID-19 crisis
The coronavirus pandemic could bring the potential for vote-by-mail elections later this year, the city councilor says.
Related Links
-
Politics
GOP pushes voting by mail, with restrictions, as Trump attacks it as ‘corrupt’
-
Politics
Wisconsin election fight heralds a national battle over virus-era voting
-
ELECTIONS & COVID-19
The coronavirus undercut these candidates’ efforts to get on the ballot in Massachusetts. Now, they’re suing.
Boston City Councilor Matt O’Malley says officials must consider how COVID-19 could impact how the city and state handle the primary and general elections later this year, including the possibility the global pandemic will call for the rollout of a vote-by-mail system.
The District 6 councilor has filed a hearing order for a council committee to convene with the Secretary of State’s office, the Boston Elections Department, voting advocacy groups, and other state and city officials to discuss how Boston and the commonwealth could prepare for elections on Sept. 1 and Nov. 3.
The order references the April 7 primary election in Wisconsin, where the state continued on with in-person voting despite a shelter-in-place order. Coronavirus concerns kept some poll workers at home, which led to a shortage at polling locations that forced Milwaukee to operate only five out of 180 polling places. Some voters waited two hours to cast their ballots.
O’Malley does not want a similar situation here in Boston later this year, not to mention that “having voters and poll workers at polling stations for hours is dangerous and runs counter to social distancing and best practices aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19,” as his order says.
“We need to be nimble, we need to be bold, we need to be aggressive,” O’Malley told The Boston Globe Monday.
At this week’s @BOSCityCouncil meeting, I’m filing a hearing order to discuss election preparedness in the wake of #COVID19, including the feasibility of a statewide all vote-by-mail election. pic.twitter.com/Q4ccaCbxdI
— Matt O’Malley (@MattOMalley) April 13, 2020
Massachusetts has already rolled out some reforms to handle how municipalities manage certain elections during the global pandemic.
The commonwealth currently does not have a no-reason-needed absentee voting policy. But under a law passed last month, voters who are sick, who are quarantined because they could transmit the illness, who cannot leave home because they are vulnerable to illness, or who are staying home as a precautionary measure in response to COVID-19 may qualify for an absentee ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
O’Malley’s hearing order says the city and state should prepare for an influx of absentee ballots; should boost polling place staffing levels; and should prepare for the potential “implementation and management of an emergency, all vote-by-mail election.”
The idea has recently come under fire from President Trump, who has called the vote-by-mail system “corrupt” and “ripe for fraud,” The Washington Post reports.
Democrats have pushed back on the president’s remarks, arguing some restrictions the GOP is seeking on vote-by-mail operations would disproportionately affect young people and minority voters, according to the newspaper.
State Republican party officials across the country have meanwhile encouraged voting by mail during the pandemic, the Post reports.
According to O’Malley’s hearing order, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado already hold their elections completely by mail. There is indeed precedent for Massachusetts to follow, he told the Globe.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said.
The council is slated to discuss the hearing order Wednesday.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com