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Letter from the Editor Elections always matter, but this year the weight of responsibility for every citizen to exercise their civic duty and vote feels particularly important and impactful thanks to the polarized political climate that is 2020.
Ballot Processing & Tabulation This year, local election officials could begin processing ballots (marking voters off the voter list, removing ballots from inner envelopes, and running ballots into tabulators) as early as October 25th. All advance processing of ballots must be done in public view, at an advance processing session posted by the local election official at least 3 days prior to the session. This process is open to observers.
Local election officials may also choose to have a central tabulation facility on Election Day, rather than send early and absentee ballots to each polling place to be tabulated. At the central tabulation facility, ballots are tabulated by precinct and the totals for each precinct are added to the totals from the polling places.
No results can be totaled until 8 p.m. on Election Night, and therefore no counting takes place until polls have closed.
Election Night Reporting The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office does not report unofficial election results, as local election officials are not required to report unofficial results to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division.
Local election officials do have arrangements with certain media organizations to provide unofficial election results on Election Night. The Associated Press has a long-standing relationship with the Massachusetts City and Town Clerks’ Associations to receive results from each city and town, and other organizations may have their own arrangements with individual election offices as well.
Election Night Results Unofficial Results on Election Night will include the following: • Ballots cast in person on Election Day • Ballots cast in person during the Early Voting period • Mail-in absentee and early ballots received on or before November 3rd
Local election officials have been instructed to total all of these results before reporting any unofficial results, so any results you see by precinct should be inclusive of all of the above ballots.
Late-arriving ballots that are postmarked by November 3rd and received by 5 p.m. on November 6th will be counted as part of a public tabulation session after 5 p.m. on November 6th.
Post-Election Results This year, ballots can be counted if they have arrived at the local election office by 5 p.m. on November 6th and they have been postmarked by November 3rd. Local election officials must hold any domestically-mailed ballots received after Election Day to be counted after 5 p.m. on November 6th.
Local election officials may choose when to count these ballots, but the counting of the ballots must be done in public and the counting session must be posted at least 3 days in advance. This process is open to observers.
While each city and town may choose when to hold the counting session for post-election ballots, we expect most clerks will hold their counting sessions between Friday, November 6th and Monday, November 9th.
Before beginning the count of ballots, clerks must reference the voter lists from Election Day to check to see if any voters have already voted in person. Mail-in ballots received from voters who have already voted will be rejected.
Final Certification Local election officials have up to 15 days to certify the results of a state election, after which the certified results are transmitted to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division. Final certification of results is done by the Governor and Council, at a meeting of the Governor’s Council after all results are compiled.
Ed Kubosiak Jr. Editor and VP of Content MassLive
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