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| 2 | 2 | | SENATE DOCKET, NO. 840 FILED ON: 1/14/2025 |
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| 3 | 3 | | SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 502 |
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| 4 | 4 | | The Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
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| 5 | 5 | | _________________ |
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| 6 | 6 | | PRESENTED BY: |
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| 7 | 7 | | Joanne M. Comerford, (BY REQUEST) |
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| 8 | 8 | | _________________ |
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| 9 | 9 | | To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General |
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| 10 | 10 | | Court assembled: |
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| 11 | 11 | | The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill: |
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| 12 | 12 | | An Act establishing the right for every citizen to have a secret ballot. |
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| 13 | 13 | | _______________ |
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| 14 | 14 | | PETITION OF: |
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| 15 | 15 | | NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :Jean Conway 1 of 2 |
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| 16 | 16 | | SENATE DOCKET, NO. 840 FILED ON: 1/14/2025 |
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| 17 | 17 | | SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 502 |
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| 18 | 18 | | By Ms. Comerford (by request), a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 502) of Jean |
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| 19 | 19 | | Conway, for legislation to include a secrecy envelope in all vote by mail ballots. Election Laws. |
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| 20 | 20 | | The Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
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| 21 | 21 | | _______________ |
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| 22 | 22 | | In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court |
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| 23 | 23 | | (2025-2026) |
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| 24 | 24 | | _______________ |
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| 25 | 25 | | An Act establishing the right for every citizen to have a secret ballot. |
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| 26 | 26 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority |
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| 27 | 27 | | of the same, as follows: |
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| 28 | 28 | | 1 As it stands now: If you vote by mail you fill out your ballot and put it into a return |
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| 29 | 29 | | 2envelope provided by the town clerk's office. You then sign your name to that envelope. Because |
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| 30 | 30 | | 3your ballot is in the signed envelope, your ballot is no longer secret. |
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| 31 | 31 | | 4 The change: Include with each ballot a secrecy envelope. When you complete your |
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| 32 | 32 | | 5ballot, put it in the secrecy envelope and seal it. Then put that in the return envelope provided by |
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| 33 | 33 | | 6the town clerk and sign it. Now your ballot in the secrecy envelope can be placed with the other |
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| 34 | 34 | | 7ballots waiting to be counted and no one will know whose ballot it is. |
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| 35 | 35 | | 8 Part 2 of the voting by mail. The return envelope sent with your ballot has your return |
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| 36 | 36 | | 9address on it. However that address is always the resident address not the mailing address. If |
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| 37 | 37 | | 10somehow the address to the town clerk's office gets unreadable, the ballot will be returned to the |
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| 38 | 38 | | 11sender's residence. The envelope will then be returned by the Post Office when it can not be |
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| 39 | 39 | | 12delivered and since the mailing address is unreadable in the first place that ballot will never get 2 of 2 |
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| 40 | 40 | | 13to its destination and will not be counted. The solution is to put the voter's mailing address on the |
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| 41 | 41 | | 14return envelope. At least that will give the voter the chance to get it returned to them and |
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| 42 | 42 | | 15redelivered either by correcting the address of the town clerk's office or hand delivering it. |
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