LYNN — City Clerk and Elections Chief Janet Rowe said it’s been “smooth sailing” for mail-in voting in the general election so far, which she attributes to tweaks made after the September primary.
Ahead of the primary, city election officials had to scramble to collect at least 200 mail-in ballots that were erroneously sent to West Bridgewater and bring them back to Lynn City Hall, Rowe said.
Rowe said the mishap was due to a printer error by the state, which resulted in a “couple hundred” ballots having the wrong envelope. Instead of those ballots being sent to Lynn, they were mailed to West Bridgewater, Rowe said.
“Luckily, we got right on it and put an ad in The Item,” said Rowe, explaining that in addition to sending impacted residents a new envelope, election officials drove back and forth to West Bridgewater in order to bring the ballots back to Lynn before the primary.
“The crisis was averted and people were very understanding,” said Rowe. “It was a mistake from the printer. What more can you do? We had a plan in place and we took care of it.”
That mail-in mishap is one of the “kinks” that Rowe said was worked out after the September primary, which she has long considered a dress rehearsal for next week’s general election. For example, the city’s election office has opted not to use “pre-knitted,” or pre-packaged mail-in ballots for the November election, and have instead chosen to put together the ballots themselves, she said.
State representative, senate and congressional candidates are on the ballot, but voters are expected to come out in droves for the heated presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden.
As of Sunday, more people had already cast ballots in this year’s presidential election than voted early or absentee in the 2016 race, according to the Associated Press, which reported 58.6 million ballots had been cast across the country. In 2016, a total of 58 million votes had been cast through the mail or at early voting sites, according to AP statistics.
In Lynn, Rowe said more people are choosing to take advantage of mail-in voting than early voting for this year’s election, which was not an option for most people in 2016.
All registered voters can vote by mail for the general election, an option that was also available to them for the state primary, thanks to a new voting law enacted because of the pandemic.
As of Monday, Lynn’s election office has sent out 17,365 mail-in ballots requests, which accounts for nearly 31 percent of the city’s 56,041 registered voters. Of those mail-in requests, 11,091 ballots have been returned and processed, Rowe said.
A total of 3,240 people have already voted early at City Hall, said Rowe, noting that Mayor Thomas M. McGee allowed the front doors to open to voters only last Friday. Early voting started in Lynn on Saturday, Oct. 17, and ends this Friday.
In 2016, 7,000 people voted in person early, when mail-in ballots were only available for absentee voters, which accounted for 20 percent of the total ballots cast in that year’s presidential election.
“Mail-in voting is more than double what the early voting was in 2016,” said Rowe. “I anticipate this week is probably going to be very busy, (since it’s the) last chance for people to come down and vote.”
With coronavirus case numbers on the rise in the city, Rowe said people may feel safer coming down to City Hall to vote early, rather than head out to the polls on Election Day. Weather concerns may also play a role in people choosing to vote early, she said.
“So far, it’s smooth sailing,” said Rowe of mail-in voting this time around. “We definitely worked out the kinks in the primary because we didn’t know what to expect. That was a dress rehearsal for this. We’ve actually buttoned down everything we could and made sure we’re prepared.”
There have been instances of people coming into City Hall to vote in person because they had not received their mail-in ballot, Rowe said, noting that proper protocols are in place to ensure no one is able to vote twice.
For those who are deterred by the postal service, there is a ballot box set up outside the Johnson Street entrance of City Hall. Voters can drop their mail-in ballots in the box, which is collected each day and will be checked every two hours on Election Day, Rowe said.
Approximately 200 ballots are dropped in the box outside City Hall each day, and voters are also choosing to bring their mail-in ballots into the building, Rowe said.
Citing an incident this past weekend in Boston, which involved a man being arrested for arson for allegedly setting a ballot drop box on fire, Rowe said the city has increased security around its ballot box.
Cameras are set up outside City Hall and Rowe has notified interim Police Chief Leonard Desmarais, who has tasked officers with patrolling the box each night.
“I think it’s in a safe and secure location,” she said.
Rowe is expecting the city’s voter turnout to exceed the numbers seen in 2016, the last presidential election year. A total of 35,000 voters cast ballots in Lynn that year, which resulted in a 65 percent voter turnout.
“I think people are really paying attention to this election and they’re going to come out,” said Rowe. “Just the primary alone doubled compared to the last primary in 2016. I definitely think we’re going to have more than 35,000 and I hope we do. It’s very important this year.”
