Universal mail-in voting should not become permanent
Nov. 20, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Evan Lips, communications director
617-523-5005 ext. 245
WOBURN -- Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s push to make universal absentee ballot mail-in voting a permanent fixture in Massachusetts elections and primaries would cripple the public’s trust in the system, Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons said Friday.
“A permanent system where unsupervised voting is the norm, held in settings that are unsecure, is no way to ensure electoral integrity,” Lyons said. “We hold election day and primary day for a reason, and we vote in person for a reason, and it all has to do with ensuring that the public has no doubts as to the integrity of the results.”
Summer Schmaling, a Republican House candidate from Halifax who came up short in her bid to oust a Democratic incumbent, cautioned Thursday that it would be “discouraging for future candidates to have any questions surrounding the integrity of the election.”
Republican Congressional candidates Helen Brady and John Paul Moran both noted that election conditions, prompted by measures taken to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, changed dramatically in 2020.
Moran stressed that maintaining these changes even after the current health threat is defeated would be “inviting chaos,” and added that “the responsibility should be with Secretary Galvin to prove that fraud did not and will not happen.”
Brady recalled how she and other candidates had to take Galvin to court just to qualify for the 2020 ballot.
“The way he disrespected us during his press conference yesterday and tried to keep me off the ballot doesn’t instill much trust from Republicans,” Brady said. “Why would I ever trust him with my vote? The onus has to be on him to prove that a mail-in system is 100 percent foolproof.
“He can call us whatever he wants to, but it’s not up to us to prove anything.”
