State’s late election law shift irks clerks

LYNN – Municipal clerks cried foul Thursday over a state change in voting rules that, they claim, puts them in a bind when it comes to determining voter eligibility next Tuesday.The last-minute change allows individuals who have failed to reregister within 18 months of moving to go back and vote in their old polling places.Currently, voters must be registered in their new community within six months of moving. Clerks like Lynn’s Mary Audley have spent weeks emphasizing this requirement by reminding residents to check their registration status including how their address is listed in voting records.Brian McNiff, spokesman for Secretary of State William Galvin, said lawmakers pressed for the change as a way of helping to ensure that displaced victims of housing foreclosures are able to vote Tuesday.The legislation makes no specific reference to the foreclosure problem. The bill only applies to voters who have already registered, McNiff added.But Audley said election workers might have to give provisional ballots to people not listed on voting rolls. Provisional ballots are not counted on election night because election officials need time to research address records and determine if a voter is a resident or a registered voter who was declared inactive after failing to vote in recent elections.”It’s a major hassle,” Audley said, adding about two-thirds of provisional ballots cast in 2004 were discarded after valid residency or voting information could not be ascertained.McNiff said individuals voting under the new provisions would not be eligible to vote on local races since they are no longer living in the districts.They would be limited to voting on national and statewide races, such as the presidential contest and the U.S. Senate race, and three initiative petitions pertaining to tax policy, marijuana laws, and dog racing.Plymouth Town Clerk Laurence Pizer, chair of the Mass. Town Clerks’ Association Legislative Committee, warned in a letter sent to Gov. Deval Patrick that the change could pose problems for clerks.”There is no question that the clerks can and will make heroic efforts to deal with this law if approved by you,” Pizer wrote. “But, the MTCA want to go on record in stating that there is no question that implementation of the law will lead to unacceptable errors in application.”