Voting by mail & early voting info. for MA, Adult summer reading program, & more | July 7, 2020

Yesterday a law was passed to allow all registered voters in the state to vote by mail for the 2020 election, no excuses required. Secretary of State William Galvin is now preparing to quickly mail applications to all 4.5 million of the state’s registered voters by a deadline next week.

This election season, for the first time in the state’s history, all voters who wish to do so will be able to cast a ballot via mail without needing to qualify for an absentee ballot. Below is an excerpt from the Elections Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office:

As required by the new law, a Vote by Mail application will be mailed to every person who was registered to vote by July 1 and who had not already requested an absentee ballot for the State Primary or for all elections this year. A second mailing will be sent out in September to all voters who have not already applied for a Vote by Mail ballot for the November election. The applications are pre-addressed to your local election official and no postage is necessary.

Vote by Mail applications must be delivered to your local election office no later than 4 business days before the election. For a State Primary ballot, your application must reach your local election office no later than August 26. For a State Election ballot, your application must reach your local election office no later than October 28.

If you wish to vote by mail, you are strongly encouraged to return your application as early as possible, to make sure that you will receive your ballot in time to return it and have it be counted.

To ensure that all ballots are counted you can use their website to track your mail-in ballot, where you will be able to see the date it was mailed. If the website can’t find a record for you, that may mean that your application hasn’t been received yet and you should contact your local election office.

There will also be early in-person voting this year. For the September primary early voting will occur from August 22-28 & the November 3 State Election early voting will occur from October 17-30.

Learn how COVID-19 has impacted elections by clicking here.

Lynn Street Resurfacings

**Weather permitting**

Monday, July 6, 2020  |  Gardiner Street & Boston Street (Oakland Avenue to the Saugus Town line)

Friday, July 10, 2020  |  Sutcliff Road & Savory Street

The Lynn Board of Park Commissioners has a meeting at 6:30pm tonight (July 7th). Watch the meeting live on TV (Comcast: 22 / Verizon: 37) or online (via our website or Facebook page)

According to the North Shore Navigators, fan will not yet be allowed to attend their home games.

Previously the Navigators had stated that “at least initially, Fraser Field will open at 25 percent of its capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions”, they would take proper precautions, & began offering fans tickets to home games. However, due to guidelines released at the start of Phase 3 of reopening on Monday, fans are now not able to attend.

Under the State’s Reopening plan spectators would not be allowed at sporting events until Phase 4. According to the state’s official guidelines, “large capacity event venues and activities organized to draw together large crowds must continue to remain closed until Phase IV. This includes venues used for group or spectator sports, entertainment, business, and cultural events…”. Currently there is no timeline for when Phase 4 would start, since it is dependent on a vaccine. You can read the state’s guidelines by clicking here.

Fans who purchased tickets or able to seek a refund or apply their purchase to a future game. Please email Derek January of the North Shore Navigators, with your receipt, by clicking here.

The North Shore Navigators, in their 13th season, are scheduled to play 19 of their regular-season games at Fraser. For a full schedule of games click here.

Click here to learn more about all of their Summer Programs, and to enter!

Updates from state government

• The State Senate introduced a sweeping police reform bill (S 2800) Monday and scheduled a floor vote at Thursday’s formal session. The policing bill that would create a process for certifying and de-certifying officers and impose new limits on the use of force, including a ban on choke holds and restrictions on the use of tear gas.
• The bill also temporarily bans the use of facial recognition technology in Massachusetts, officially prohibits racial profiling, and includes language aimed at expanding access to expungement for young adult offenses.
• It would also strike the requirement that police officers be present in schools, leaving the decision instead to a superintendent’s discretion, & contains State Police reforms that Governor Baker proposed earlier this session, including removal of the requirement that the governor appoint a colonel from within the department.
• The House is also awaiting Senate action on a COVID-19 restaurant relief bill (H 4774) sitting in Senate Ways and Means. The Senate last Thursday approved its version of a more than $1 billion COVID-19 supplemental budget (H 4808), and the branches need to reach consensus on that time-sensitive bill.
• The head of the state’s largest teachers union on Sunday said the return to school in the fall should be approached in a phased-in way, with time for teachers to prepare for new health and safety protocols, as well as to update curriculums.
• Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy said the union would be presenting its own plan to reopen school “in the next week and beyond,” and has meetings planned with Education Commissioner Jeff Riley.
• Najimy and the MTA have taken issue with Governor Baker’s plan to allow for the reopening of schools in the fall, including the union’s disagreement with the administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics that three feet of space between desks will be sufficient to protect students. Najimy said six-feet should be the minimum distance for separation.