{"id":182,"date":"2020-06-04T14:30:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T14:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press-releases\/statement-house-elections-legislation-protects-voters-says-voting-rights-group\/"},"modified":"2020-06-04T14:30:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T14:30:26","slug":"statement-house-elections-legislation-protects-voters-says-voting-rights-group","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/statement-house-elections-legislation-protects-voters-says-voting-rights-group\/","title":{"rendered":"STATEMENT: House Elections Legislation Protects Voters, Says Voting Rights Group"},"template":"","class_list":["post-182","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":"","press_type":146,"authors":[null,"{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7881}","{\"site_id\":\"56\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":183}"],"related_issues":[109,462],"related_work":false,"location":24},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"For Immediate Release<\/strong>: June 4, 2020\r\n\r\nStatement of Pamela H Wilmot, Executive Director\r\n\r\nToday the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed by a nearly unanimous vote a very strong reform to our election laws. The legislation will allow every voter who wants to vote from the safety of their own home to do so. The House has recognized the urgency of passing legislation to help protect our fall elections and moved quickly to help keep voters safe.\r\n\r\nThe legislation takes critical steps to promote ballot access and safety in the fall\u2019s elections, by sending mail ballot applications for both the September 1 and November 3 elections to all registered voters, creating an online portal for mail ballot applications, expanding early voting, and providing safer in-person voting on election day.\r\n\r\nWe commend the House for passing such a strong bill. Most of the credit goes to House Election Laws Committee Chairman John Lawn who worked with all stakeholders to craft an excellent piece of legislation. He and House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz, Assistant Majority Leader Michael Moran, and Speaker DeLeo then worked with members, election officials, and advocates to further improve the bill by, among other things:\r\n