News Clips

Common Cause Massachusetts Executive Director Pam Wilmot said that while she believes mailing ballots to all would be the "most efficient system," she recognizes the barriers to setting it up in time this year. "We've heretofore done very little voting by mail, and the sort of transition to a full mail system is something that typically takes many, many years," she said. "We certainly are pushing for this reform in many places, but politics is the art of the possible."

"With those changes, this bill will ensure that Bay Staters -- who may otherwise have been prevented from casting a ballot by the coronavirus pandemic -- can exercise their fundamental right to participate in our democracy," said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts.

Prior to Tuesday’s session, Common Cause Massachusetts and more than 80 organizations, including ACLU and MassPIRG, threw their support behind three amendments filed by Sens. Jo Comerford, Adam Hinds, and Eric Lesser dealing with an online portal to request ballots, postmarking ballots to ensure they are properly counted, and extending the deadline to request mail-in or absentee ballots to the Friday before Election Day. All three were adopted during Tuesday’s session.

"A number of states, including Massachusetts, are looking at using mail-in voting for the 2020 election. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has said he wants to start printing ballots for fall elections as soon as June 2. That means a decision on mail-in voting needs to be made quickly."

“Election officials need to prepare for the fall, and they need to do it as soon as possible,” said Common Cause Massachusetts Executive Director Pam Wilmot during a virtual press conference alongside about a dozen groups last week. “We’ll see what the Legislature decides, but time is absolutely of the essence and it needs to go now.”

On Wednesday, Common Cause Massachusetts Executive Director Pam Wilmot said a resolution “absolutely cannot wait another month.”