Revere Election Commission Prepares for Record 2020 Voter Turnout
August 18, 2020
City Continues to Encourage Vote By Mail
Tuesday, August 18, 2020 – The City of Revere Elections Department is preparing for record voter turnout ahead of this year’s September 1 State Primaries and November 3 State Election. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many residents’ polling locations have changed and new Vote-By-Mail procedures have been implemented.
As of today, The Election Commission has already processed 4334 Vote by Mail ballots and 444 Absentee ballots. “In September 2016, which is comparable to September 2020, only 2,138 voters cast a ballot. We have already tripled that number,” said Diane Colella, Revere’s Election Commissioner. “In my 20 years on the Election Commission that number has never been so high during a State Primary in an election year.”
Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Massachusetts legislature has approved no-excuse Vote By Mail for all 2020 elections. Registered voters can complete the application, available on the Elections Department website, and mail or bring it to the Elections Department. The deadline to submit a Vote by Mail application or an absentee ballot application for a mailed ballot for the September 1 primaries is 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 2020. In person early voting for the State Primaries will be held from Saturday, August 22, 2020 through Friday, August 28, 2020. The hours of early voting on Saturday, August 22, 2020 and Sunday, August 23, 2020 is 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The hours of early voting from Monday through Thursday is 8:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and on Friday from 8:15 a.m. until noon. Early voting will be held at St. Anthony’s Church, 250 Revere Street, Revere, MA 02151 Bingo hall, rear entrance.
This week the City will also install a secure drop-box for ballots with a camera monitor next to City Hall to give voters another chance to avoid in-person-voting. All votes placed in these secure ballot boxes will be counted if dropped off before 8:00 PM on Election Day.
The Elections Commission website has been updated to include all new polling locations and early voting information (available here), information about what will be included on ballots at each election (available here), and all deadlines (available here).
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