July 15, 2016 — Responding to Governor Charlie Baker’s veto of over $1 million from the Secretary of State’s budget for implementing early voting this fall, the Massachusetts Election Modernization Coalition, which includes the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, has sent letters to the leadership of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate, urging an override to protect early voting. The letters state:
“We believe that it is important to make this first attempt at early voting in Massachusetts a success. Our election modernization coalition has challenged the cities and towns to implement a robust early voting effort, and we would hate to see early voting weakened by this cut to the Elections Department budget.
“We understand that revenues are tight, but these decreases go way beyond the 1% across-the-board cuts proposed by the Governor. By removing the “prior appropriation continued” language approved by the House and Senate, the Governor is cutting over $800,000. When added to the 1% cuts, this is a budget reduction of over $1 million, or about 6% of the Elections budget. We believe that this is too much. Please help ensure the success of the Election Modernization law, and help support the right to vote, by restoring Secretary Galvin’s elections funding.”