More than two dozen primary ballots were rejected because the voter was dead, among thousands tossed by the Secretary of State’s office during the first statewide election since mail-in voting was made permanent.
“While we always want to keep our rejection rate as low as possible, in many cases, the number of rejected ballots shows that the systems we have in place are working,” a spokesperson for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office told the Herald Tuesday.
Of 4,838,359 eligible voters, only 1,052,414 cast a ballot in one of the two-party primaries, an overall turnout of 21.8%, according to data Galvin’s office shared. Mail-in and early voting accounted for just over half of votes cast by a margin of 5,693 votes.
More than 11,000 ballots had to be rejected during the mail-in process, according to Galvin’s office.
That number may seem small, but it’s a cause for concern for opponents of mail-in voting. Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl’s campaign says they see any rejected ballots as a problem.
“Geoff Diehl and Leah Allen are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections, and it has been their longstanding belief that mail-in voting presents a concern. The high number of mail-in ballots rejected during the recent primary is concrete evidence that they’re right to be worried about the process. Whenever there is evidence that voters’ choices might not be registered when they vote, or that votes could be tabulated inaccurately, that is immediate cause for worry,” Campaign Manager Amanda Orlando said.
She said it’s a concern that isn’t going to go away.
“Democrats on Beacon Hill made mail-in voting permanent this year without conducting any meaningful review of the process from when it was first used, and without instituting any additional safeguards to ensure election integrity. This will continue to present a question and cause for concern not just with the upcoming election, but with any future election in which mail-in voting is used,” she said.
Though the data shows 32 voters were made ineligible when they died after requesting a ballot and 327 mail-in applicants had already voted, Galvin’s office said no illegalities have been shown.
“There is no indication in the data of any unlawful voting. That likely would have been brought to our attention once the clerk detected it,” the spokesperson said. “When a ballot is rejected, that is itself a check against any unlawful voting.”
A dead voter isn’t necessarily disqualified from voting, if they did so before they died, Galvin’s office said.
“A ballot is typically rejected as ‘deceased’ because the clerk learned of the voter’s death after the ballot was already mailed. If a ballot were to come back from a deceased voter, the clerk would check the date of voting and postmark to see if the voter cast it before they died. A ballot can be counted as long as the voter was alive when they cast it,” the spokesperson said.
Most rejected ballots, about 8,000, simply arrived too late.
“Ballots arriving too late to be counted continues to be the most common reason for rejection,” Galvin’s office said.
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just whistling past the graveyard.
dems would not cheat lol
THIS IS WHY it should damn well be MANDATORY that each state does a 5 year VALIDATION Of their voter rolls, and if they REFUSE TO PURGE The voter rolls, of those who are dead, or have moved, there NEEDS TO BE TANGIBLE PUNISHMENTS for the state…
Absentee ballots if requested by a registered voter and the ballet set has a registered number on the ballet and the envelope, plus the signature matches that on file is a good thing, But as in the 2020 election, mail in voting ballets were sent out by the millions, without being requested, not to registered voters and multiple ballets were sent to an addressee, votes were counted without any kind of verification. There was no accountability for the Democrats mail in voting. And that is why we are in the fix we are in now.
AND that is why dems WANNA REPEAT That, for this november… SO THEY CAN FIX the mid terms too.
Maybe I’m going blind but I did not see the name of the state in which this transpired mentioned. Okay, Commonwealth Is some type of clue. And the newspaper The Boston Herald is further data but that does not mean this happened in Boston.
THIS IS Why i have long advocated, ELIMINATING MAIL IN VOTING< period.
ONLY keep absentee ballots, for LEGITIMATELY DISABLED folk.
And for those who whine "what of those who work out of state". IF THEY CAN'T get their sorry butts back home for one day to vote, that's not on ME TO worry.
Gee, here’s a novel idea; put limits on Mail in voterssuch as hospitalized or military stationed out of state or over seas. Mail in voting Open to everyone isn’t going to work! As much as we’d like to believe every person is completely honest, even a 5 year old knows better than that. Pull your head out and Open your eyes!
Another concern with mail-in voting is the (in)efficiency of the post office. It sometimes takes an entire week for a first-class letter to go to the next town. Such delays could mean ballots are disqualified for being late.
Okay we tried it. It doesn’t work well enough to continue. Let’s go back to the tried and true.
Rejected due to voter was dead. Then that’s voter fraud. Look for DNA and fingerprints to see who did it and charge them
Good point. SOMEONE had to mail it in. FIND OUT WHOM and charge them criminally!
What I’m wondering is how many illegitimate ballots didn’t get detected and made it through? Whenever and wherever ballots are being rejected, that means there is a strong possibility unqualified ballots are getting counted. Vote in person with an I.D. and there is no question about legitimacy.
Hence why i consistently ADVOCATE TO eliminate mail in voting!
If the Democrats have their way next will be Vote by Phone and that would include the Ones the Biden Administration is giving the illegals too What no doubt Period
YOU Can certainly bet they are already doing everything possible, to REGISTER EVERYONE of those 3+ million illegals we’ve had over the past two years, AND ALLOW THEM TO vote..