Critical Flaws in Massachusetts Elections

A significant portion of our nation’s population has low confidence in our electoral system. That sentiment is validated by an Election Rules Review produced by The Meyers Report released on August 27th. The review gives good reasons for this lack of faith, especially in Massachusetts.

The Election Rules Review compares and contrasts election rules based on election laws, policies, processes, and procedures in all 50 states and a sampling of 36 countries world-wide with astounding results that can be seen in the charts that follow. The full review can be referenced at https://meyersreport.news/electionrules.

With inputs from election experts in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, The Meyers Report selected the following 17 election risk areas for study.

1. Citizen-only Voting
2. Same Day Registration Voting
3. Ranked Choice Voting
4. In-person Early Voting
5. Mail-in Ballots
6. Qualifying for Absentee Ballots
7. Possible Mail-in Ballot Voting Days
8. Accepting Late Ballots
9. Ballot Harvesting
10. Voter ID for Voting and Registration
11. Small Precincts
12. Paper Ballots
13. Fingers Marked
14. Manual or Machine Vote Counting
15. Routine Audits
16. Quick Results (in 2024)
17. Citizen Access to Voter Rolls Lists

As seen in the following chart, scores in green of 75% or above are considered good scores while scores in yellow of 65-74% are considered marginal. Scores in red of 64% or below are considered failures.

Compared to the colored green countries including Kenya, India, UK, and even North Korea, the United States scored an embarrassing low of 60%. Even worse for Massachusetts, the state scored a shameful 51%.

On April 16th at their quarterly meeting, the MassGOP unanimously passed a resolution presented by State Committeewoman Kathy Lynch listing elements of secure elections: voter identification, votes by U.S. citizen only, clean voter rolls, observer access for all electoral processes, equal political party representation, limited mail ballots (e.g., overseas military; physically handicapped), all ballots to be received by Election Day, no automatic registrations, no same-day registrations, no voting for children under age 18, replace insecure voting technology, use only secure paper balloting, and conduct independent post-election audits.

The resolution clearly states what the MassGOP recommends for secure elections in Massachusetts.

Two election risk areas that stand out in the Election Rules Review are no-excuse mail-in balloting and early in-person voting.

No-excuse mail-in balloting and early in-person voting were brought in nationally through emergency use authorizations during the Covid pandemic. Those procedures did not revert back after the emergency use authorizations were lifted.

A high 94% of nations surveyed, excluding the U.S., refrain from mail-in balloting while only 27% of U.S. states refrain from mail-in balloting. As for early in-person voting, 89% of nations surveyed, excluding the U.S., refrain from early in-person voting while the U.S. scored 8% for ubiquitously conducting early in-person voting.

While Massachusetts voters rely on honest and well-run elections, without a transparent and verifiable electoral system, voters will not be alerted to dishonest or fraudulent election activity. We need election law reform with checks and balances to ensure secure elections.

There are many factors contributing to the low scores for the U.S. and the even lower scores for Massachusetts. The Election Rules Review provides a superb close-up assessment – showing us that the U.S. and, even more-so, Massachusetts have a long way to go. Until then, confidence in our electoral system will continue to falter.