I walk into the Methuen police station, enter the area set aside for advance voting, and this guy at the first table says:
“Driver’s license!”
“What?”
“I need to see your driver’s license.”
“No, you do not – and you can’t demand any voter’s ID.”
This is where he points to a paper on the desk that says “ID not required, but it helps to speed things up.” Not an official document, something someone printed up themselves.
I answer the usual questions (name, precinct, address) fill out the envelope, fill out the ballot, and hand it to a lady I know who tosses it into a lidless container on the table behind her.
“There’s no secure ballot box?” says I.
“No, this is what they gave us.” says she.
Wow.
Please share widely!
I met two ACLU election attorneys at my forum yesterday and they are looking for test cases involving early voting mishaps. I’d be happy to forward their info to you.
Sounds like a good subject for a thread -‘how to report issues’.
I drive by a church twice a day with candidate lawn signs on their property. Is that kosher?
It can’t be outright banned because it’s private property and the first amendment applies, but the IRS might be interested.
Is it all one party, or is it cone-one-come-all? The former might get a problem, the latter an expression of community.
…I wouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot pole, for both legal and political reasons.
…less than 100 feet (or whatever the distance is) from the polling entrance…I would say that is a violation.
Isn’t the boundary only ON election day?
“No on 2” folks were standing right outside Town Hall’s doors.
On election day, they’re not allowed to stand that close. On all the days until, they are.
Attorney General, and the Mass Dems and notify them.
within the Secretary of State’s Office at 617-727-7030.
They have a professional staff that will investigate and resolve violations of election law.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
I just spoke to the Elections Division and they are on it. They confirmed that ID is NOT required to early vote and this is a clear violation of election laws.
They will resolve this immediately with the City Clerk of Methuen.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
Unless the person was denied the ability to vote, it may be a nothing burger. Listening to the description of the conversation, it sounded more like they wanted to see ID to speed it up, aka look up voting address quicker by reading rather than trying to hear – I wondered if the clerk had a problem with hearing the address. “Did you say SEVEN ore SEVENTEEN?”, etc.
It was exactly like absentee voting…put ballot in envelope and sign it.
It was like absentee voting with a sealed envelope signed with my address and signature on it. But I put it into a ballot box.
They are calling it “Early Voting” but it’s actually a no excuse required absentee ballot and it won’t be tabulated until voting night after polls close.
I’ve been a poll watcher in Lexington and if/when there is a lull during the day, the absentee ballots will be processed.
as in, run through the same optical scan that regular ballots go through. No?
These votes are processed throughout the day but counted after voting ends.
I think many (all?) cities and towns run the absentee (and now, early aka no excuses absentee) ballots into the scantron machine during mid-day, sometime between 7am and 8pm.
Of course all the votes are officially counted, together, a few minutes after 8 once the polls close.
So far as I can tell, at 8pm all the ballots are in the box together, and there’s no way to tell which were absentee and which were cast in-person. Well, except by seeing which ones were folded. Which leads to an awkward potential problem about private ballots in a low turnout election where few ballots were folded…
No one asked for/mentioned driver’s licenses, large “ID not required” sign. Ballots still being tossed into open containers, though.
I am curious. Do the early ballots have to be put in a locked box? I know there is a big safe in every town clerk office. Do multiple town employees have to be present to open and close the safe?