{"id":185,"date":"2020-06-12T17:01:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T17:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press-releases\/80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote\/"},"modified":"2020-06-12T17:01:25","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T17:01:25","slug":"80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote"},"template":"","class_list":["post-185","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":"","press_type":146,"authors":[null,null],"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":"80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote\r\nAhead of Tuesday\u2019s Senate vote, the Election Modernization Coalition and 80 Massachusetts organizations sent a letter to the Senate in support of S. 2755 and three amendments to strengthen protections for voters and elections administrators.\r\n\r\nThe groups praised the bill as \u201ccritical and significant,\u201d but said that the bill requires three \u201ccrucial amendments.\u201d These amendments, numbers 3, 8, and 33, would:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>ensure that the Secretary of the Commonwealth creates an effective online portal for requesting ballots,<\/li>\r\n \t<li>ensure that all ballots sent on or before election day in November are counted, and<\/li>\r\n \t<li>expand the deadline for requesting absentee ballots.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nForty-one amendments have been filed by state Senators in advance of Tuesday\u2019s vote.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe legislation that the Senate will be considering is very close to what the House passed last week,\u201d said Common Cause Massachusetts Executive Director Pam Wilmot. \u201cIt is very strong and will go a long way towards making sure that every voter can safely cast a ballot in our fall elections. But we urge the Senate to adopt three amendments. 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.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cFrom the importance of this November\u2019s election and the true threats that COVID-19 presents to it, the stakes for our elections have never been higher. But add to that the renewed urgency that the past weeks\u2019 protests bring to the fight to hold government accountable \u2013 it has never been more important that every eligible voter can make their voice heard. With these amendments, S. 2755 will do just that,\u201d Wilmot said.\r\n\r\nFull sign-on letter below.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\nJune 11, 2020\r\n\r\nDear President Spilka and members of the Senate,\r\n\r\nLast week the House passed a strong elections bill, H. 4778, to help protect voters and election workers from the coronavirus this fall. The legislation will help every voter who wants to cast a ballot from the safety of their own home to do so and will help ensure that our election system is prepared for a tsunami of mail ballots. With its swift action, the House recognized the need to move quickly to help keep voters safe and to adapt our election procedures accordingly.\r\n\r\nThe bill requires the Secretary of State to mail ballot applications to all voters for the first time. This change, along with the establishment of an online portal for requesting ballots, expanding early voting, and other reforms in the legislation, is critical and significant.\r\n\r\nThe Senate Ways and Means Committee bill, S. 2755, only made a few small changes. However, one change is problematic and the Committee did not fix two issues we had identified with the House Bill. Accordingly, we have filed three amendments that we believe are crucial, and we think will be acceptable to the House. We are reviewing other amendments and may support others, but have identified the following as our collective priorities:\r\n\r\n\u00b7 Amendment #33, Senator Comerford: Expanded deadline for requesting a ballot. The Senate bill expands the blackout period when voters can no longer request a mail ballot. While we recognize that the current deadline of only a few hours before the election is too short, the seven days proposed by the Senate Ways and Means bill is too long and puts us behind 22 other states that are more generous to voters. The House bill language strikes the right balance for the 2020 elections by requiring the receipt of ballot requests by noon of the Friday before the elections, although it inexplicably created a different deadline for 2021 and beyond. This amendment would keep the Friday deadline for elections in 2020 and going forward and thereby allow more people to cast a mail ballot.\r\n\r\n\u00b7 Amendment #8, Senator Hinds: Postmarked Ballots. Our second amendment addresses a deficit in the House and now the Senate bill regarding ballots received after Election Day. Massachusetts must ensure that ballots mailed by Election Day in November are counted, even if they arrive a few days after the polls close. Given the expected dramatic increase in the volume of mail-in ballots and a postal service that is not performing at peak capacity, extending the deadline is critical to help ensure that tens of thousands of voters are not disenfranchised. Seventeen other states, including California, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas, already follow this rule to make sure that every vote counts in all of their elections. Many other states will adopt temporary orders to do the same. For our primary election, mailed ballots will still have to be received by Election Day because of a tight deadline for printing the November election ballot. But this is an important reform for November. The problem this amendment addresses is the postmark requirement in both the House and Senate bills. Many pieces of mail, including all metered mail, do not get postmarked, so by requiring a postmark, the current bill will cause tens of thousands of ballots properly mailed and received by the deadline to remain uncounted. The amendment allows evidence other than postmarks to prove the date of mailing, which other states have been doing for many years. This amendment will help ensure that ballots with missing or illegible postmarks are not disregarded.\r\n\r\n\u00b7 Amendment #3, Senator Lesser: Online Portal. Our third amendment strengthens the bill\u2019s language establishing an online portal so that Massachusetts voters have a safe and easy means of requesting a mail ballot. The portal will also ensure that our local election officials have less work processing paper applications. We remain very concerned about the clerks\u2019 workload in the fall. Processing a ten- to twenty-fold increase in mail ballot applications and then processing the returned ballots has crushed election officials in other states this spring, even in relatively low-turnout elections. Massachusetts already has similar online portals including the current online voter registration system. The amendment will create an affirmative duty to create the mail-in ballot request portal and will clarify that a signature is not required to access it. Massachusetts\u2019 other portals, such as online voter registration, use personal identifying information. Requiring a signature would be difficult if not impossible to implement. Many other states including Maine, Vermont, and New York have portals. Idaho developed one in three weeks. They do not require signatures.\r\n\r\nPlease join us in supporting these amendments to the bill so that the Commonwealth can conduct fair and accessible elections this fall without risking public health. The clock is ticking, and every week we delay is one lost for election officials to implement these important reforms.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\r\nPam Wilmot, Common Cause Massachusetts\r\nRahsaan Hall, the ACLU of Massachusetts\r\nJanet Domenitz, MASSPIRG\r\nCheryl Clyburn Crawford, MassVOTE\r\nPatricia Comfort, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts\r\nBeth Huang, Massachusetts Voter Table\r\nSophia Hall, Lawyers for Civil Rights\r\nChrissy Lynch, AFL-CIO\r\nMarvin Martin, Action for Equity\r\nBeth Kontos, American Federation of Teachers-MA\r\nJeff Clements, American Promise\r\nTanisha Arena, Arise for Social Justice\r\nPriscilla Flint-Banks, Black Boston COVID19 Coalition\r\nCheryl Clyburn Crawford, Black Directors' Network\r\nLarry Banks, Black Economic Justice Institute\r\nRev. David Wright, Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, Inc.\r\nSpencer Brown and Eve Seitchik, Boston Democratic Socialists of America\r\nRev. David Wright, Boston Ten Point Coalition\r\nNia Evans, Boston Ujima Project\r\nPhyllis Neufeld, Burlington Democratic Town Committee\r\nDavid J. Harris, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice\r\nGladys Vega, Chelsea Collaborative\r\nLisa Owens, City Life Vida Urbana\r\nRev. June Cooper, City Mission, Inc.\r\nDeb Fastino, Coalition for Social Justice\r\nGail Latimore, Codman Square NDC\r\nAlan Epstein, Criminal Justice Reform Task Force of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek\r\nMadeline Hertz, Democratic Policy Center\r\nElizabeth Henry, Environmental League of Massachusetts\r\nAdam Eichen, Equal Citizens\r\nKatrinia Shaw, Freedom House\r\nSamuel M. Gebru, Generation Citizen Massachusetts\r\nBeverly Williams and Rev. Burns Stanfield, The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization\r\nCharlene Greene, Greater Boston Section-National Council of Negro Women\r\nCarla Cooper, Indivisible Martha's Vineyard\r\nDebbie Paul, Indivisible Mass Coalition\r\nLaurie Veninger, Indivisible Outer Cape\r\nNadeem Mazen, Jetpac\r\nCindy Rowe, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action\r\nAaron Agulnek, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston\r\nJoyce Hackett, Lift+Every+Vote\r\nDavid A. Bryant, MA Association of Community Development Corporations\r\nJavier Gutierrez, Madison Park Development Corporation\r\nMichael Kane, Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants\r\nJanine Carreiro, Mass Communities Action Network\r\nThomas Callahan, Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance\r\nCassandra Bensahih, Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement\r\nGeorgia Katsoulomitis, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute\r\nEva A. Millona, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition\r\nAndrea Burns, Massachusetts Peace Action\r\nCelia J. Blue, Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition\r\nEmily Ruddock, MASSCreative\r\nPhillip Kassel, Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee\r\nMITvote Executive Board, MITvote\r\nSue Swanson, Mothers Out Front\r\nJuan M. Cofield, NAACP- New England Area Conference\r\nTanisha Sullivan, NAACP-Boston Branch\r\nRebekah Gewirtz, National Association of Social Workers, MA Chapter\r\nMaria Elena Letona, Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts\r\nBrian Miller, Nonprofit Vote\r\nZac Bears, PHENOM\r\nMehreen Butt, Planned Parenthood\r\nJohn Lippitt, Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts\r\nRussell Freedman, Progressive For Democracy in America\r\nFred Van Deusen, Reclaim Our Democracy\r\nFilipe Zamborlini, Rosie's Place\r\nShana Bryant, Shana Bryant Consulting Services\r\nDeb Pasternak, Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter\r\nFrances Moore Lapp\u00e9, Small Planet Institute\r\nAnika Van Eaton, Somerville Democratic City Committee\r\nMichael Chen, Sunrise Movement Boston\r\nMark Haidar, The Equal Democracy Project at Harvard Law School\r\nShahara Jaghoo, The Women's Pipeline for Change\r\nClaire Miller, Toxics Action Center\r\nAziza Robinson-Goodnight, Transformative Culture Project\r\nHorace Small, Union of Minority Neighborhoods\r\nLaura Wagner MSW, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action\r\nGeorge Pillsbury, Voter Choice for Massachusetts 2020\r\nIsabel Gonzalez-Webster, Worcester Interfaith\r\nLezlie Braxton Campbell, Young Democrats of Massachusetts\r\nYWCA Malden\r\nJordan Latham, YWCA Southeastern Massachusetts\r\nWhitney Mooney, YWCA Cambridge\r\n\r\n<em>The Election Modernization Coalition is comprised of the ACLU of Massachusetts, Common Cause Massachusetts, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, Lawyers for Civil Rights, MASSPIRG, MassVOTE, and the Massachusetts Voter Table. The Coalition\u2019s longstanding goals include ensuring elections are accessible, participatory, accurate, and safe.<\/em>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<a class=\"button1\" role=\"button\"  href=\"\">Download Release<\/a> "}}]},"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>80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote - Common Cause Massachusetts<\/title>\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-releases\/80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Massachusetts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press-releases\/80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press-releases\/80-massachusetts-organizations-urge-adoption-of-three-election-bill-amendments-ahead-of-tuesday-vote\/\",\"name\":\"80+ Massachusetts Organizations Urge Adoption of Three Election Bill Amendments Ahead of Tuesday Vote - 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