Major News, MA Secretary of State's Office Confirms:
The Melrose Election Office printed the incorrect voter lists for each precinct and failed to include all the unenrolled/independent voters. New lists had to be sent from the state and are only now, over two hours into voting, being delivered to each precinct. Meanwhile each unenrolled voter has to identify him/herself and that has to be confirmed individually by phone (as per Secretary of State's instructions, to prevent having to do provisional ballots).
This is a disgrace, and it's inexcusable!
This is an enormous and inexcusable screw-up that points to the level of incompetence that pervades nearly every department of Melrose city government. And you can guarantee that instead of humility and careful self-evaluation there will be obfuscation and self-congratulation instead.
Shame, shame, shame!
No excuse whatsoever!
I had to stand there and wait while trying to get to work so that they could call to confirm my voter status. I've never missed an election. They workers were all very apologetic, and this is certainly not their fault. But there simply is no excuse for this level of incompetence.
This is disgusting. Shame on the officials who did not catch this sooner. For crying out loud they've known about this election for months. Doesn't anyone oversee/proof what happens in these critical functions of our government? Clearly not! The election commissioner should be fired immediately, along with anyone else who was supposed to have oversight. And who exactly are those locally with oversight responsibility??????
There really is no excuse for such a major error, with thousands of pages of printed lists now having to be distributed to all the precincts hours into the voting. There should be a thorough investigation to find out if each and every registered voter who tried to vote was provided that opportunity.
Oh brother! "Ward 5" poster nailed it. The local wonderful-wonderful types are posting in droves on the Facebook page. And as should have been predicted, they are trying to claim this was a state issue, not a city one. This is not a day of statewide elections. This was a special election because of Brodeur's position. This was definitely a local foul-up.
But here's the kind of drivel being posted: "Very pleased with how City Hall rose to the occasion to not only get the polls support during this problem but that we have corrected pages less than 2 hours into the polls being open. We are lucky to have such a great team supporting this election!"
or this:
"Same in Ward 1 Precinct 1 at 7 am this morning. The Warden was on the phone with the Election Commissioner, confirmés that it was a State issue: all Unenrolled voters were left of the lists."
So now it's fancy French "confirmés" just to add to the pretentiousness and idiocy! And no, just because the obviously incompetent Melrose Election Commissioner says it was a state issue does not make it so.
Shame on them!
Seems that the Iowa Democratic Party is in charge of our state rep election!
I voted for/write-in Mr. Reid, hope that the majority will as well! Otherwise, prepare for more continued ineptness, dirty-deeds, complacency, perversion, and lies.
https://patch.com/massachusetts/melrose/melrose-voters-report-issues-polls?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_term=politics&utm_campaign=alert
Some Melrose Voters Told To Return After Problem At Ballots
Voting lists did not include unenrolled voters for part of Tuesday morning, when many hit the polls for the special primary election.
By Mike Carraggi, Patch Staff
Feb 4, 2020 9:46 am ET | Updated Feb 4, 2020 11:29 am ET
MELROSE, MA — Several voters were unable to vote and others had to cast provisional ballots due to a problem with voting lists at polls across the city Tuesday morning. Unenrolled voters were left off the lists handed out to all polling locations in Melrose for a special House election, City Clerk Amy Kamosa confirmed in a statement.
All polling locations had a complete list of registered voters by about 9 a.m.
"Despite an earlier problem, voting is now operating smoothly at all polling locations across the City of Melrose," Kamosa said.
Some voters whose names were not on the list were allowed to vote with a provisional ballot, for which they need identification. Others were not offered a provisional ballot and were told to come back later in the day.
"Our highest priority is to ensure that anyone who is eligible to vote has the opportunity to do so," Kamosa said.
Officials in Malden and Wakefield confirmed to Patch there were no issues with the voting lists in their respective communities. The 32d Middlesex District includes all of Melrose, Precincts 4, 5 and 6 in Wakefield and Ward 5 Precinct 2 in Malden.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. for the special election for the 32d Middlesex District seat formerly held by now-Mayor Paul Brodeur. Democrats Kate Lipper-Garabedian of Melrose, Mathew Helman of Malden and Ann McGonigle Santos of Wakefield, are the only candidates on the ballot.
Voting in Malden was "light" as of 11 a.m., City Clerk Greg Lucey said.
Polls remain open until 8 p.m.
Translation: This was a MELROSE problem (Malden and Wakefield polling lists were fine)!
Voters asked to come back???? (Because, sure, that's totally not a problem for anyone....) Are you kidding me? Is this really how totally incompetent and ARROGANT Melrose officials are? Well of course.
Poop Tornado strikes Melrose Elections.
Being told to "come back later" is just not acceptable. It is a real form of voter suppression, whether intentional or not. The city hall types are figuring this was just an unfortunate blip, no doubt, and will want to sweep it under the massively bulging rug (complete with the sewer overflows that were never appropriately dealt with, along with the plethora of illegal actions and results of almost two decades of incompetence).
This whole debacle should force a thorough investigation by the city councillors. Maybe the great freedom-fighter John T will rise to the challenge (not a chance). Macmaster is probably the only one who'd care enough to raise the issue, especially now that Forbes is gone.
"Mike Carraggi For those interested, story has been updated with the city saying it will review procedures. Nearly 12,000 Melrose voters are unenrolled"
Oh sure it will....
Tell us how the sewer system has been thoroughly examined and upgraded after multiple tragedies that left Melrose families homeless and their properties destroyed. That's right, it hasn't been. Tell us how we have a new COMPETENT Health Director. Oh, that's right, Clay is still in her job, as is Van Campen and all the other cast of incompetent and malevolent fools.