BOSTON - Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin wants to make sure everyone's vote gets counted in Tuesday's municipal elections across the state.
What You Need To Know
- Tuesday's elections, with few exceptions, are municipal elections. That makes them a bit different than a sate or federal election
- Municipalities are in charge of their own hours of operations for the polls, so check times before you go
- Mail-in ballots will only be counted if received on or before Election Day
- If you still have a mail-in ballot, you can only drop it in a drop box or hand it in to officials for it to be counted
“I’m greatly concerned however, that there is some misunderstanding about the return of vote by mail ballots,” Galvin said Monday at a press conference. “In the case of municipal elections, there is no grace period.”
In a larger federal or state election, a ballot just needs to be postmarked by Election Day for it to count, but when it comes to the municipal elections like this one, it needs to be in the hands of election officials by the day of the election. That means if you haven't sent in your mail in ballot, it's too late.
“At this present moment, there are tens of thousands of ballots that are unreceived,” Galvin said. “At this hour we are recommending that they not be mailed as they will not be received in time.”
For mail-in ballots to be counted, they can be dropped off at a drop box location or physically handed to election officials in your town.
“It's important that these ballots get counted," Galvin said. "These people took the time to participate. We want to make sure their ballots are counted. It would be very frustrating with all the improvements we made that these ballots don’t get counted.”
Poll times are also not standard in many municipal elections, so be sure to check when the polls are open before you head out to vote.