Galvanized on the vote
Despite foreseeing no problem with elections locally, the usually unexcitable Secretary of the State Bill Galvin felt “compelled” to comment on the state of voter sentiment nationally.
“You know, two years ago I held this press conference in anticipation of the presidential election, no one was speaking about reliability of the ballots, no one was questioning what was going to happen, no one was questioning the process, that somehow elections were going to be stolen,” Galvin said at an electioneve press conference at the State House Monday.
For two years, Galvin said, the fact that voters across the nation have been dealing with the ongoing “discussion, if you want to call it that” surrounding the reliability of election systems and the veracity of the 2020 presidential contest, “really speaks to the depth of which it has penetrated our political consciousness in our society.”
“It demands us to speak out to those who question it and to refute false claims wherever they are made,” he said. “Fortunately here in Massachusetts, most of the issues that we’ve confronted as a result of this misrepresentation have been suspicions, lawsuits — most baseless — and just generally questions of results, as opposed to other parts of the country where people have been threatened with violence.”
The secretary’s warning comes just as the Department of Justice announced it would be sending monitors to polls in several states, including Massachusetts.
“The Justice Department announced today its plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 64 jurisdictions in 24 states for the Nov. 8, 2022, general election,” the Department said in a Monday release.
Officials will monitor polling locations in Clinton, Everett, Fitchburg, Leominster, Malden, Methuen, Randolph and Salem, they said.
High tensions in other locations aside, Galvin said that voters in Bay State simply have not been animated by the candidates they’re presented with this cycle.
“It doesn’t seem like there is tremendous enthusiasm for this election,” Galvin said. “It’s almost a little anticlimactic.”
About 1.1 million mail-in ballots were requested Galvin said, and most, about 776,000, have been returned, he said. That means about 350,000 voters have ballots in hand or on the way, he said.
“I do not expect all 350,000 to return,” he said.
Despite a historic ticket — with a chance to send an almost entirely female leadership team and send Galvin himself to a recordbreaking 8th term as Secretary of State — Galvin said that if not for four ballot questions presented to voters he wouldn’t expect much interest at all.
“My office has received more questions on the questions than anything else,” he said.
According to Galvin, both sides of each of the four questions have been doing a decent job of selling their version of what the proposed changes would amount to, but anyone with questions should refer to the official voter guide.
“The one-sentence statement is the best and most precise summary of what the ballot question can do,” he said.
Massachusetts remains a mostly independent voter state, Galvin said, with more than half of voters refusing registration with either major party and participation in those two parties continuing to drop.
Registered Democratic voters now represent less than 30% of all voters and Republicans less than 10%, Galvin said.