By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Early voting for the presidential election will begin on Saturday, Oct. 19.
Former Gov. Charlie Baker signed the VOTES Act into law in the spring of 2022, which made voting changes initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic permanent. The law allows voters to once again cast their ballots via mail for presidential, state and municipal elections. The law also established two weeks of in-person early voting before the biennial state elections.
“The Town Clerk’s Office will be holding two weeks of in-person early voting for the Nov. 5 state election beginning on Saturday, Oct. 19,” said Town Clerk Amanda Haggstrom.
Haggstrom said residents will be able to vote early from Saturday, Oct. 19 through Friday, Nov. 1 at the Town Clerk’s Office, 525 Salem St. The Town Clerk’s Office is located behind the Senior Center and is adjacent to Lynnfield Public Schools’ Central Office.
Early voting will take place from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19. There will be no early voting on Sunday, Oct. 20. Early voting will be held from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21 through Thursday, Oct. 24. Early voting will take place from 8-1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 25.
Residents will be able to vote early from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26. There will be no early voting on Sunday, Oct. 27. Early voting will be held from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28 through Thursday, Oct. 31. The final day of early voting will take place from 8-1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1.
“If someone would like to vote early in-person, they would come to the Temporary Town Hall at 525 Salem St. at door number four, and come to the Town Clerk’s counter,” said Haggstrom. “A poll worker will check them in, and provide them with a ballot and an envelope. Voters will mark their ballot in the voting booth, seal their ballot in the envelope, sign the envelope and return it to the poll worker. In-person early voting ballots are stored and locked in the vault until they are advanced processed with the vote-by-mail ballots prior to the election.”
Haggstrom said residents can also vote-by-mail for the presidential election.
“Anyone who wishes to vote-by-mail must submit the postcard application to the Town Clerk’s Office,” said Haggstrom. “Anyone who did not receive the postcard from the Secretary of State’s Office may submit a paper application, which can be found on the Town Clerk’s website, elections division’s website or in-person at the Town Clerk’s Office. Voters can also visit the elections division’s website to apply for a ballot online. Voters can check the status of their ballot to see when it was mailed out by our office, and when our office has received it at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/TrackMyBallot.”
As of Thursday, Oct. 10, Haggstrom said the Town Clerk’s Office has mailed 2,969 vote-by-mail ballots, 15 absentee ballots and 41 overseas electronic ballots.
“The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 5 p.m.,” said Haggstrom.
Haggstrom said the deadline to register to vote is Saturday, Oct. 26 at 5 p.m.
“Voters can register to vote online at the secretary of state’s website or in-person at the Town Clerk’s Office,” said Haggstrom. “We currently have 9,981 registered voters.”
Haggstrom said the deadline for residents to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to them is Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 5 p.m.
“Same ballot and same voting process,” said Haggstrom.
If residents request a vote-by-mail ballot and return it to the Town Clerk’s Office before the presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, Haggstrom said, “their vote is considered cast and they are not permitted to vote on Election Day.”
“If someone requests a ballot-by-mail and does not return it to our office, then they are permitted to vote,” explained Haggstrom. “We often have people bring in the ballot kits they were mailed to the in-person early voting location, and they ask us to shred their unused ballot so they can vote in-person. What residents don’t know is that the vote-by-mail ballots and in-person early voting ballots are stored together and processed the same way. Ballots are not cast through the tabulators during in-person early voting. The ballot and orange signature envelope that the resident receives through the mail will be the same exact materials that are given when they come to vote early in-person. When a ballot is mailed to us, the orange envelope is time stamped, scanned in the computer and stored in the vault until they are processed prior to the election. If you follow the Town Clerk’s Facebook page, our office makes behind the scenes TikTok videos showing residents the process for how we get all of our ballots ready to be picked up by the United States Postal Service to go out to voters. We also show the process for when ballots are returned back to us and how they are processed.”
If residents don’t want to vote early or vote-by-mail, Haggstrom said townspeople from all four precincts will be able to cast their ballots in-person for the presidential election in the Lynnfield High School gymnasium on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Similar to previous elections, the polls will be open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
Haggstrom said voting-by-mail has become more popular than early voting among residents.
“Lynnfield is following suit with most other municipalities in the commonwealth, seeing a major decrease with in-person early voting despite increased mandates,” said Haggstrom. “For the state primary election in September, the Town Clerk’s office was required to hold six days, 45 hours, of in-person early voting. With staffing and supplies, it cost approximately $1,600. Out of 9,839 registered voters, 33 of them voted early in-person. It cost the town approximately $48.48 per person to vote early in-person. Our office mailed out 2,400 ballots for the September state primary. Out of those, we received approximately 1,200 back. Postage for each ballot is 97 cents, and that does not include funds spent for extra personnel to help assemble a large quantity of ballots or the supplies needed for the process.”
Haggstrom encouraged townspeople to visit the Town Clerk’s website in order to “research the different options they have for casting their vote.”
“Make a voting plan,” said Haggstrom. “We also kindly encourage those who requested to vote-by-mail to return those ballots to us, as the process of getting all of these ballots out to residents is extremely labor intensive and uses many town resources. Only a small portion of election mandates are funded by the state, so residents should be made aware that these types of costs are being passed down to Lynnfield and they ultimately affect the budget, their taxes and services.”
