Governor Baker signed the VOTES Act June 22! Unrestricted mail voting and expanded early voting are now law. It reduces the registration deadline before elections from 20 days to 10. This law also helps election officials by allowing them to process ballots received before Election Day (but not count them) and widens the pool of potential poll workers. It requires that eligible incarcerated citizens have access to voting. Massachusetts will have to join the Election Registration Information Center (ERIC) to clean up its voter rolls.
It does not include same-day voter registration, but we will be back next legislative session with a bill to get that done.
We will have information on the provisions in the bill on our website soon. In the meantime, if you need information on mail voting and in-person early voting, see details, including deadlines, on the Secretary of State website, here for mail voting, and here for early voting.
We are planning a virtual Town Hall on the law for League members; watch your inbox for details.
While the Republican party has filed a constitutional challenge to voting by mail in the Supreme Judicial Court, our coalition researched legal options when the bill was drafted, and we are confident voting by mail will survive a legal challenge.
https://lwvma.org/celebrate-the-votes-act/