{"id":1641,"date":"2024-11-20T10:45:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T15:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/?post_type=press&#038;p=1641"},"modified":"2024-11-20T11:48:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T16:48:40","slug":"voting-rights-coalition-releases-election-day-report","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/voting-rights-coalition-releases-election-day-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting Rights Coalition Releases Election Day Report"},"template":"","class_list":["post-1641","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"The Massachusetts Election Protection Program Steering Committee, a group of statewide civic and community-based organizations, released its analysis on voting conditions in Massachusetts in the 2024 presidential election. ","featured_image":"","press_type":146,"authors":"","related_issues":[100,462],"related_work":[222],"location":24},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":"","name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Findings show Bay State voters experienced avoidable barriers<\/span><\/i><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boston, MA \u2013\u00a0 The Massachusetts Election Protection Program Steering Committee, a group of statewide civic and community-based organizations, released its analysis on voting conditions in Massachusetts in the 2024 presidential election. The analysis, using data directly from the program\u2019s field and poll monitor volunteers, identified major barriers to voting, including the ten-day voter registration blackout period, disability and physical accessibility issues, tabulators that jammed or broke, and polling locations in Boston that ran out of ballots before polls closed.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The program trained and deployed over 400 nonpartisan Election Protection volunteers at 140 unique polling locations in 30 different municipalities across nine counties on Election Day. Voting access Issues identified by volunteers include:\u00a0<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">156 voters who showed up to vote in-person and who were otherwise eligible to vote but had not registered prior to the ten-day voter registration deadline on October 26;\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over 50 incidents of disability voting and other physical accessibility issues ranging from broken AutoMARK machines, limited handicapped parking spaces, lack of handicapped ramps, and a lack of automatic doors and\/or doors that weren\u2019t propped open;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">14 ballot tabulation machines that jammed or broke and;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/boston\/news\/boston-polls-run-out-of-ballots-shortage-voter-turnout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Significant shortages of ballots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at at least four Boston polling places the afternoon of Election Day.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response to the myriad barriers to voting identified by the Election Protection Program, the analysis recommends that the Massachusetts State Legislature work to immediately adopt <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/elections-and-campaigns\/same-day-voter-registration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Same Day Registration<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which would allow voters to register \u2014 or update their registration \u2014 on the same day that they vote.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDemocracy shouldn\u2019t be available on a first-come, first-served basis,\u201d said <\/span><b>Geoff Foster, Common Cause Massachusetts Executive Director<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cEveryone has a right to cast a ballot, but with an arbitrary registration cutoff period, polling locations without required accessibility oversight, and polling places that run out of ballots, that sacred right is taken away from thousands of voters. It\u2019s one more reason why it\u2019s time we join the 20-plus other states with same day registration.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEnsuring the future of democracy requires us to safeguard our right to vote today. We thank the hundreds of Massachusetts volunteer poll monitors who showed up for democracy on Election Day,\u201d said <\/span><b>Traci Griffith, Racial Justice Program Director, at ACLU of Massachusetts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cNow, leaders must also show up for our democracy: There are reforms that Massachusetts can adopt to improve its democratic process, support the orderly administration of elections, and remove barriers to the ballot.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen elections have barriers, it's often our most marginalized communities that get impacted and in our state that looks like our BIPOC and low-income communities. The Massachusetts Voter Table\u2019s 40+ partners work diligently every year in these same communities to advance civic access, engagement, and representation to increase resources and power for people of color and working-class people toward achieving a multiracial democracy. That is why we were proud to be a part of the Election Protection coalition again this year and have so many of our 40+ partners trained to be leaders and volunteers on election day to ensure voters had access to the ballot box,\u201d said <\/span><b>Shanique Rodriguez, Executive Director of MA Voter Table.<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMassVOTE worked hard to recruit and mobilize Election Protection volunteers, and their dedication safeguarded voters\u2019 access to support at the polls. The challenges identified by our volunteers\u2014such as ballot shortages and accessibility barriers\u2014show that while we did our job on Election Day, systemic reforms like same-day registration are essential to guaranteeing every voter can exercise their right to vote. It\u2019s time for Massachusetts to strengthen its democracy and remove these unnecessary obstacles.\u201d shared<\/span><b> MassVOTE Executive Director, Cheryl Clyburn Crawford.<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leading up to and on Election Day, the Massachusetts election protection coalition recruited, trained, and mobilized volunteers to assist voters at the polls. Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights ran the national nonpartisan voter assistance hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE. Voters who experienced any challenges or had questions with any part of the voting process could call or text the hotline to connect with experts who could help in multiple languages. <\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To read the report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/MA-EP-24-Report-Draft.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a>. <\/span>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_add_component":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_work","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_work":{"heading":"Work","manually_curate":false,"work":null}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Voting Rights Coalition Releases Election Day Report - Common Cause Massachusetts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Massachusetts Election Protection Program Steering Committee, a group of statewide civic and community-based organizations, released its analysis on voting conditions in Massachusetts in the 2024 presidential election.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/voting-rights-coalition-releases-election-day-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voting Rights Coalition Releases Election Day Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Massachusetts Election Protection Program Steering Committee, a group of statewide civic and community-based organizations, released its analysis on voting conditions in Massachusetts in the 2024 presidential election.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/voting-rights-coalition-releases-election-day-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Massachusetts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-20T16:48:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/EP_Main.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1120\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Massachusetts Election Protection Program Steering Committee, a group of statewide civic and community-based organizations, released its analysis on voting conditions in Massachusetts in the 2024 presidential election.\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/voting-rights-coalition-releases-election-day-report\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/voting-rights-coalition-releases-election-day-report\/\",\"name\":\"Voting Rights Coalition Releases Election Day Report - 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