Boston sends out early voting flyers with wrong dates, prompting complaint from candidate
The City of Boston mailed flyers to registered voters with errors in early voting dates for the Sept. 3 statewide primary, a potentially confusing mistake that concerned one candidate enough to raise a complaint with state election officials.
The flyers, per a copy obtained by the Herald, correctly list the range of this year’s primary early voting dates, which extend from Aug. 24 to 30 — but feature errors at the top of the notice that inaccurately match one of the dates, Aug. 30, with a day of the week it does not fall on.
The typo also incorrectly infers that early voting is available on two consecutive Sundays, Aug. 25 and the inaccurate listed date of Sunday, Aug. 30, when in fact, the practice extends from Saturday, Aug. 24 to Friday, Aug. 30.
The top of the mailed notice should have listed the actual weekend dates as Saturday, Aug. 24 and Sunday, Aug. 25. Complicating matters for residents looking to take part in early voting is some of the polling locations vary based on different dates and days.
“Our office reached out to the Boston Elections Department regarding an incorrect date on the mailers that they sent to voters,” Debra O’Malley, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, said in a Friday email. “The office was already working on correcting the information through a number of channels.”
O’Malley added that “any voter confused by the date of ‘Sunday, Aug. 30’ that is printed on one section of the mailer may find complete early voting dates, times, and locations” on websites for the City of Boston and Secretary of State.
Requests for comment from the mayor’s office and the Boston Election Department, including on how much it cost to send the mailers and what it would cost to potentially resend flyers with the correct dates, were not returned.
The early voting typos were notable enough to prompt a verbal complaint from one of the few Boston candidates involved in a contested primary, Erin Murphy, an at-large Boston city councilor vying to become the next clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the County of Suffolk, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
“I can confirm that we received a complaint from Erin Murphy, though no other Boston voter has complained at this time,” O’Malley said.
Murphy will face Attorney Allison Cartwright, a fellow Democrat, in the Sept. 3 primary. It’s a race that, while for a relatively obscure position, has become a key focus in the contentious Boston political scene in recent months.
The moderate Democrat Murphy, seen as an antagonist of the progressive Mayor Michelle Wu, has been snubbed by the mayor and a majority of the Boston City Council, in terms of endorsing her challenger, Cartwright, in the SJC clerk race.
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“To be clear, my No. 1 motivation is and always will be about the voters, and ensuring that they know where and when to vote so their vote counts,” Murphy said in a statement to the Herald, in response to an inquiry about her complaint. “My concern is simply about ensuring that every voter in our city has accurate information.
“Access to the Democratic process is fundamental, and when a citywide mailer goes out and the dates and times for early voting are incorrect, it can unintentionally disenfranchise people and block voters from exercising their right to vote,” Murphy added. “This is about safeguarding our democracy and is absolutely not about assigning blame.”
A Herald inquiry seeking comment from Cartwright on the city’s early voting errors was not returned.