Secretary of State Bill Galvin, Massachusetts' top election official, is predicting lackluster voter turnout for Tuesday's Nov. 8 statewide elections. Galvin projects that less than 50% of registered voters will cast ballots.
The election, according to Galvin, hasn't generated "tremendous enthusiasm."
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday for voters to pick a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and auditor. They’ll also decide races for secretary of state, treasurer, Congress and all 200 seats of the state Legislature. But it’s the ballot questions that appear to be the driving force this year, Galvin said.
“There seems to be almost an anti-climactic attitude toward this election, and indeed, voters are far more concerned about the ballot questions,” Galvin told reporters at the State House. “It almost makes this election more like a midterm exam than a midterm choice, mostly because voters themselves are quite involved in trying to assess the implications of the four ballot questions.”
The questions ask voters whether to impose an extra tax on income over $1 million, add new regulations for dental insurance, change liquor-licensing rules for retailers, and uphold or repeal a new state law that would allow immigrants who living in the country legally to apply for standard driver’s licenses. With some areas also deciding local questions, Galvin said all voters should turn their ballots over to make sure they don’t miss anything on the back.
In particular, Question 1, which proposes the income surtax, has been the subject of a fierce ad battle on television and other media, with supporters and opponents each spending millions of dollars on their campaigns.
Meanwhile, Galvin said, “the absence of real intense campaigns” for the offices on the ballot here, means that “we’ve seen more activity about New Hampshire on our broadcasts than we’ve seen about Massachusetts.”
Galvin estimated a total turnout of about 2.2 million, which would represent 45% of the state’s nearly 4.9 million registered voters. And many of the ballots for this election have already been cast. As of 9 a.m. Monday, voter turnout stood at 19.8%, with 776,738 ballots mailed in and another 187,874 people having voted early in-person.
That predicted 2.2 million turnout would fall well below the 2.7 million ballots cast — or 60% turnout — in 2018, the last time the governor’s office was on the ballot.
Though the 2018 race between Gov. Charlie Baker and Democratic challenger Jay Gonzalez was not particularly close, Galvin said the “remarkable turnout” that year came as voters reacted to Donald Trump's presidency.
“There was this tremendous sense of obligation to vote,” he said. “I wish I could say that is true today here in Massachusetts, but it isn’t. The reality is, if we look at all the opportunities we provided people to vote so far, it doesn’t seem at this point that there’s tremendous enthusiasm for this election.”
Nationally, the election will determine which political party controls Congress. Galvin said that’s a decision voters need to feel they have a stake in.
“If you vote for no other reason [than] just to vote, to prove yourself as a citizen and to affirm your personal confidence in the voting process, that’s a good reason,” he said.
Galvin called the rise in people questioning the validity and reliability of elections over the past few years “greatly concerning.”
“The bigger problem in this area is not so much the organized groups, it’s sort of the vigilante-type people who’ve decided because they saw something on the internet, they need to go down to a polling place and inspect it or do something,” he said. “We don’t think we’re going to have as much of that in Massachusetts as perhaps in some other jurisdictions, and I’m happy for that. But we’re prepared for that. We don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
Galvin said his office has been in touch with the state political parties and other groups about the rules for poll observers, who cannot interfere with voters’ rights. He also said ballot boxes are carefully guarded, and each polling place has a police officer present.
Last week, U.S Attorney Rachael Rollins announced that an assistant U.S. attorney in her office, Eugenia Carris, would oversee the handling here of any Election Day complaints that arise around voting rights concerns, threats to election officials or election fraud. The FBI will also have agents available to field any allegations of election abuses, and complaints about possible violations of federal voting laws can be made to the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division.
