GOP lawmakers want access to ‘undeliverable’ mail-ballot apps
Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marc Lombardo, are taking their quest for information on the cost and efficacy of last year’s vote-by-mail expansion to the state archives, where they believe a trove of undeliverable ballot applications are being housed.
“We’re just trying to get facts. This is not an accusation,” state Sen. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, said. “In order to create good policy, we’re trying to make sure we have all the information possible when we talk about extending mail-in voting and what we need to do to get it right.”
With lawmakers poised to begin debating making the pandemic-induced expansion of mail-balloting permanent, Fattman and his colleagues were tipped off to a room in the state archive building where “undeliverable” ballot applications for last September’s state primary and the November general election were being stored.
After going to check it out earlier this week, Fattman, Lombardo and Rep. Shawn Dooley sent a letter to Galvin’s office requesting access to the applications.
Lawmakers first asked Galvin about the number of undeliverable ballot applications in a letter last December that the secretary’s office never responded to.
Galvin spokeswoman Debra O’Malley said Thursday the lawmakers’ request for access to the archives is under review.
She stressed in an email there are “absolutely no ballots being stored” there — just “unused ballot applications that were always intended to be returned to our office if they were not able to be delivered.”
O’Malley said the secretary’s office “has been open about the existence of these unused applications since July, when the first mailing was conducted.”
Fattman doesn’t know how many ballot applications lawmakers might find.
“I think it’s fair to ask, because we’re spending taxpayer money,” he said.
Fattman’s been particularly concerned about the risk of disenfranchisement that comes from ballots or applications that don’t reach their intended recipients.
“The U.S. Post Office lists 25 reasons why they’re undeliverable when things bounce back, we just wanted a categorization of what’s going on,” Fattman said.
Fattman represents communities in Worcester and Norfolk Counties. Dooley represents the 9th Norfolk District.
Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said, “The less transparent of a process this becomes, the less confidence voters will have in the practice of mail-in voting going forward.”
As lawmakers search for answers in the archives, a pair of failed Republican congressional candidates are waiting for a hearing on the state’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of last year’s expanded vote-by-mail system. The lawsuit John Paul Moran and Caroline Colarusso filed in superior court is a scaled-back version of a broader federal suit they voluntarily withdrew last December.