Below is my public comment on the September Primary date. I suggest we all make public comments on this. Here is the link to the comment request. Currently the primary is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18th. It appears that Galvin looking to change the date to a Thursday. All comments are due January 2nd so time is ticking.
As we begin to plan for the state’s primary election in September, there has been much discussion about changing the voting day from Tuesday to Thursday to avoid voting on two major Jewish holidays–Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
I am not in favor of this proposed idea. Changing the election day to Thursday almost guarantees low voter turnout, and there is data to prove it. In 2012, the first time a primary was held on a Thursday, there were fewer voters than in 2008 when it was held on a Tuesday. In Boston, turnout in the 2008 primary was 14.01 percent, compared to 10.88 percent in 2012. This number was virtually unchanged in 2016 when the primary was again held on a Thursday. Shifting an election to a date certain to yield a low turnout amounts to an incumbent-protection plan and silences the voices of party activists and outsiders.
I propose we plan for the primaries to be held before the traditional September date. Doing so would allow for the primary winner to have more time to connect with voters prior to the general election in November.
All elections must be held on Tuesdays until we pass a law that does any of the following: sends everyone an absentee ballot with a deadline to return it; allows Saturday voting; or expands early voting to include all primaries. We should not silence the votes of Jewish people, and we should ensure constituents have some consistency when it comes to the voting process.
Let’s work together and come up with a primary date in the months leading up to September. Low voter turnout and inconsistency will be recurring issues if we continue to kick the can down the road and do not make the real change needed to guarantee all voices are heard in 2018.
I agree that it should stay Tuesday, but wouldn’t cast aspersions on motives. Yom Kippur begins at sunset on 9/18 so people should be able to vote before that, plus don’t we have early voting now? I would like to see it the previous week, but that does run into Rosh Hoshanah. Party activists, please note that 9/18 is already locked in as the cutoff by which one has to be 18 to be selected as a convention delegate, and since the next DSC meeting is not until after caucuses begin that is unlikely to change.
It doesn’t seem that the early voting law in Massachusetts applies to next September’s primary. I can’t be sure because the info at the Sec of State’s office is as clear as mud, and apparently hasn’t been updated since 2016.
Early voting for the primary would solve any questions about the date. It would also empower any candidate who had an organization able to give riders to the polls. That would be a big advantage for the abysmally low turnout primaries.
I won’t cast aspersions on the people who crafted this law (apparently) to prevent higher turnouts at primaries. As for why the Sec of State’s office, I imagine they have their hands full making paper airplanes out of FOIA requests.
LOL @ Bob’s all too true joke at Galvins expense. He also is actively appealing a court order that would’ve ended the ridiculous 20 day registration deadline before elections and mandated same day. This is a guy who goes out of his way to depress turnout and keep people from voting.
Why is there a court order nullifying a 20-day registration requirement that applies to everyone equally? I like the idea of same day registration, at least for general elections, but see no constitutional requirement for it.
Here’s the link to it. The Superior Court judge who ruled said he could find no reason for an arbitrary cut off in the Mass Constitution and agreed with the plaintiffs that it disenfranchised thousands of voters. Mostly poor, minority, and working class ones.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/mass_court_rules_voter_registr.html
Thanks, but I’m not sure I like the idea of the court substituting its judgement for the legislature’s regarding what is and isn’t necessary.
Isn’t this more a case of the court deciding between the judgement of the legislature and the rights of the people?
There’s a long history of courts doing just that. Which side of that history do you want to be on, Christopher?
If the rules are different for different people the courts can, do, and should step in, but this seems more like just an administrative procedure without overriding equal protection concerns.