On Tuesday, Massachusetts residents will have their final opportunity to pick their preferred candidates and weigh in on the statewide ballot questions, essentially deciding whether to write those policies into law. State House News Service reporter Chris Lisinksi says he has not yet “formally and anonymously expressed” his preferences (voted) yet.
Chris Lisinski, SHNS: I'm planning to do it on Election Day itself, just for the old-time approach. I like the energy of the polling place on election day.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Yeah, that's my plan too. I'm going to vote midday tomorrow because it’s supposed to be a quieter time in my small town.
You know, I checked in with some town clerks around Hampshire County, and they all say they expect a busy day at the polls tomorrow, despite communities also reporting a lot of residents have already cast early ballots.
“Oh, I don't think there'll be anything quiet about it. It's a presidential election,” said Katrin Kaminsky, the longtime clerk in Worthington.
So, that’s the expectation in that hill town, but Chris, is that typical, and have you heard a similar sentiment?
Yeah. I don't think I've met a single person who is Zen and relaxed heading into tomorrow. Whatever your politics are or your partisan identification is, everybody is very wound up and expecting a real buzz of a day.
Given the anxiety around this election, officials are planning for claims of fraud and for threats of violence starting tomorrow. The Brennan Center for justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, reports that local election officials across the country have taken steps to increase security for voters, election workers and in the infrastructure since the last presidential election. And there is a federal election overseer in Massachusetts. What role are they expected to play?
That's right. Acting U.S. attorney Josh Levy tapped assistant U.S. Attorney Lucy Sun to serve as effectively the district election officer for Massachusetts. She's got a few different responsibilities, basically overseeing federal monitoring of the election and handling any complaints that get steered toward the U.S. Attorney's office. Federal officials do say that the FBI will have special agents available in field offices, and that the most direct way to get aid in any emergency case is probably going to be to go to local or state police.
Oh, definitely. Right. So, when the results from tomorrow are known, whenever that happens to be, what happens with the ballot questions, if they pass? I mean, what is that legislative process ahead?
Yeah, the Legislature can still come in and tweak the actual law that winds up on the books, even if voters approve very specifically drafted law. We're expecting the same to happen with a couple of questions if they pass on Tuesday, based on what legislative leaders have said already.
But the lawmakers who would be tweaking that law, looking ahead past the election, still have a number of things that they want to accomplish before the next session starts and new members who will be elected tomorrow are sworn in. Is it hard to get lame duck lawmakers to stay engaged?
I don't think it's necessarily going to be. I think that it might, in fact, be easier to get lame duck lawmakers to be engaged because they don't have the election distracting them from business on Beacon Hill. It's not exactly like lawmakers are really busy, right now. Very few of them have any kind of electoral challengers of their own, and much of their attention is focused on their colleagues or national races.
So, you could argue in a way that once that has passed and nobody is looking at presidential polls every day, out canvasing for [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren or helping with a ballot question campaign, they might actually have more time to focus on the business that's right in front of them.
