Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin ordered a complete overhaul of how Boston conducts elections following an investigation that revealed some precincts did not receive enough printed ballots for the 2024 election.
“It has been determined that the Boston Election Department failed to supply polling locations with a sufficient number of ballots causing some locations to run out of ballots for a significant period of time,” the investigator’s report stated. “This resulted in voters in the City experiencing needless and unacceptable delays in voting and, in some cases, disfranchisement because the voter was unable to wait.”
The city had planned to deliver ballots equal to about 80% of registered voters to every precinct, but a calculation error caused some precincts not to receive enough ballots, the report found. Galvin, a Democrat, added that while the city did have enough ballots, it failed to provide enough for several precincts ahead of time.
The secretary of state’s office is now calling for the creation of a team to contact voting stations on the day of voting to relay any problems and is also appointing someone to help with implementing improvements to the city.
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The secretary of state’s office found that a breakdown in communication compounded the problem of a lack of ballots last fall.
“A major problem that was evident was the inability of the Boston Election Department to directly communicate, in real time, with each voting precinct in order to determine and prioritize those locations that had run out of ballots or had an immediate need for additional ballots,” the report concluded.
