How many times at an airport have you heard the Public Service Announcement –“If you see something, say something!”
That should be the new slogan for the Republican Party, especially in Massachusetts.
The stories of mail-in voter issues are mounting faster than RMV forgotten records. Ballots have been left out in the open in Norfolk. The Plymouth Town Clerk quit the day after the May Special Election where 800 ballots just appeared, not to mention the problems of Republicans not receiving their ballot requests. In Wayland, people were sent the wrong ballots. Outdated instructions were sent to voters.
Within my own family, there have been multiple issues. My Dad received his ballot, but my mother never did. California Democrat friends of mine, who have never lived with me, were sent voter registration verification cards. Note the word: “Democrat.”
The outside envelope for my ballot has a capital “R” under my name. It’s not because I live on the right hand side of the road. It marks me as a Republican. Doesn’t that make it convenient to know how I will possibly vote? Like most Republicans, I’m not a Baker RINO (Republican in Name Only).
The stories over problems are rampant!
That’s before we even get to the ways to cheat. Did you know that you don’t have to actually mail in your ballot? You can drop it off to a designated box just in case you cannot walk to your mailbox or you don’t want to early vote or you don’t want to vote on Election Day. The thought of these designated drop off boxes gives me nightmares. In the Special Election on the Cape last May when this voting by mail began, hundreds of ballots were dropped off in bulk. It would have been helpful if people who saw something took a picture or video of this happening. So, if you see something, say something and take a video.
The new mail-in ballot law passed after the Special Election only allows a person to drop off one ballot. That means no more “ballot harvesting”/dropping off piles of ballots. Unfortunately, there is no verification of dropping off just one per election, so an operative can drop off many “one ballots” as long as no one is keeping a tab on the situation. Hence, do your civic duty. If you see something, say something.
Also, this doesn’t mean operatives are not going to try to collect ballots to mail. Remember, there are those convenient identifying letters on the outside envelopes. Your job to counter this dirty trick is to educate everyone you know to never hand their ballot to anyone.
Having worked on campaigns for decades, there is always an operation to insure voter integrity on Election Day. However, with mail-in ballots, drop off boxes, and early voting, there is not one place just to monitor. There are so many places in the process where things can go awry. That’s why we need every civic minded person to say something, if they see something.