Melrose Polling Consolidation Raises Questions, Concerns

MELROSE, MA — Concerns about public health and enfranchisement for the elderly and foreign-language speakers kept the City Council wanting more information before voting on whether the city will consolidate all its voting locations into the middle school gym for the two elections later this year.

Monday night's Appropriations Committee meeting resulted in a 6-5 vote to keep the request in committee, as Councilors requested information on how the city would communicate such vital changes to residents — particularly those who don't use the internet or speak English as a first language — and transport seniors and others who don't drive to the centralized polling location.

The proposed change would eliminate all eight polling locations in the city for the September and November elections, instead directing in-person Election Day voters to the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School gym.

The move is being made with the expectation that the state will soon allow expanded early voting and no-excuse mail-in voting, which if instituted would theoretically cut down the number of people heading to the polls on Election Day; City Clerk Amy Kamosa said she expects 30 percent of registered voters at most to show up. Earlier in the day, state lawmakers agreed to a deal that would expand voting in such ways. (The plan is for early voting to take place at Memorial Hall.)

Like all things right now, the impetus for consolidating the locations is the pandemic.

The city is facing a poll worker shortage after half, including 10 of 14 wardens, already notified the city they won't be working this fall. Since all early and mail-in votes need to be tabulated on Election Day, Kamosa said it is easier to have the workers under one roof — especially if they are new.

Multiple locations also mean more incurring more costs for police, DPW and other potentially other materials; Either way, the election will cost more than the usual $30,000 or so thanks to all the pandemic-specific supplies and mailing costs. Kamosa said the city expects to be reimbursed for much of the extra cost through the CARES Act and the rest through a free cash allocation.

One of the chief concerns is bringing everyone into one location at a time when many experts expect COVID-19 infections to spike, but Kamosa said the 17,000-square foot gym can handle whoever shows up while maintaining social distance between voters and whoever else is using the school at the time — something current locations may not have the ability to do. City health officials and the Council on Aging both support the request.

There is also the question of whether some voters, especially seniors, would be made aware of the change and be willing and able to travel somewhere other than where they've voted for decades. Kamosa said the Council on Aging only has two vehicles to transport seniors to the polls.

Kamosa said the current plan calls for using all resources to communicate the message, including postcards in different languages, reverse 911 calls, using the mayor's YouTube and website updates and more.

Several councilors who appeared inclined to either support or resist the change seemed to be genuinely struggling with the decision.

"I do have a lot of reservations in bringing everyone to one location," Councilor Mark Garipay said, citing ubiquitous guidance from Gov. Charlie Baker to do the exact opposite during the pandemic.

Kamosa said the neighboring Marcoux Gym could be used as a spillover location if necessary, but didn't anticipate the number of votes at the middle school gym at any given time to be unwieldy.

While neither plan is perfect in this imperfect times, Kamosa said she believes the tradeoffs are worth having the centralized location.

"We want to make sure the election, regardless of cost, is handled freely and fairly," she said.

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