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Report: Several Walsh workers voted illegally
By adamg on Wed, 06/24/2015 - 11:04pm
David Bernstein reports on how they voted in advance of the election even though working for a candidate on election day is not one of the reasons you can legally do that in Massachusetts - and even after they were warned about it.
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Comments
Who cares if they voted
Who cares if they voted illegally, he's still a great Mayor...
No.
He is not. J. Connolly would have made a much better Mayor.
Enough of these life long townie mayors. We need outside blood to bring new, fresh ideas to Boston!
Connolly and outside blood
He might have made a fine mayor, but he's as life-long townie as Walsh. More so, in fact, since his father's from here, as opposed to from 3,000 miles away.
Connelly would have been the
Connelly would have been the same as Marty except every utterance suffixed with "for the sake of our childrens' future."
New Idea's!!
New Idea's!!
You must have your head up your ass!!
Job growth is at it's highest level in Boston.
Biotech companies are growing on the waterfront.
new meters on the streets of Boston.
Streets are always clean more than ever!
Parks and neighborhood seimming facilities upgraded.
New Hotels popping up in our inner city and Boston creating hundreds ofconsteuction and hospitality jobs.
Real estate development going on.all over the entire city.
Thousands of new affordable housing units being constructed creating more construction jobs.
??
Is this a new form of haiku?
Said no one ever
Said no one ever
Nothing new
In Arlington, politically active people boast of voting absentee for no valid reason all the time. They don't believe in the law concerning absentee voting, many are seen working for their candidates on Election Day and openly flaunt the law.
Small surprise the Dems selectively enforce laws they disagree with.
Biting
Insightful political commentary...
Flaunt
Flout
Flaunt my ignorance
You are so right I'll leave my ignorance on display as I flauntulate some more...
Sigh...
Yes, sir. I pray every day there's no 9/11 style terrorist attack on this city because I can see that fucking baloonhead Mayor making Rudy Giuliani look humble.
Add to that the political savvy of having someone in charge of public policy who used to order the deli trays for backstage at TT's as her qualifications.Linehan is pretty quick with that delete button, I'll give her that. She would be the first to turn state's evidence if it ever came to that. They don't allow cats in prison.
Love the hacks ganging up on Bernstein on his FB page!
Let's look at those who object or gave Bernstein a hard time for reporting this, shall we?
Carlos Henriquez - thinks Bernstein should find other fish to fry. The man most famous for beating women and being the only House member to be expelled since 1916 had this to say:" Writing about things that you don't think are a big deal and shouldn't be punished for ? I got a more meaningful story for you to investigate. It's about how a member of Massachusetts General Court was falsely accused, victim to perjury, and wrongfully convicted, incarcerated, only to be unconstitutionally expelled. That's something meaningful that someone should be punished for. Scoop it David S. Bernstein" Ooohhh..sour grapes, Carlos?
Owen Hooks Davis-Lobbyist- had this to say: "This is as trumped-up a non-issue as a "so-and-so hasn't paid their parking tickets" story, but it's more offensive because it a) coasts on a click-baity, voter-fraud-insinuating headline, and b) drags some poor FO into it rather than keeping candidate-bashing to the candidate and senior staff."
Colin Mahoney- Lobbyist- had this to say: "In other news - Marty Walsh walked against the crossing light and wasn't fined!!"
Rosemary Powers: political hack from Dorchester (!) had this to say: "Well, I have worked on a lot of campaigns and think I am well versed on election rules, but I didn't know this. And, honestly, aren't there bigger issues to worry about?"
Now, I like Bernstein. I think he's a reporter with balls in a town with very few of those. I apologize to him in advance if he did not want these comments republished here, but I'm not a reporter who needs sources to break stories. That's why I have no problem criticizing those who object to Bernstein's reporting for no other reason I can see other that they may know or want something from our moron Mayor and his crew of half wits.
Keep up the good work and fuck em if they can't take a joke, sir! The voters can obviously take a good joke.
Bernstein
He lives in Vermont. Guess there was no action in Stowe to keep him busy last week. I'm not a Walsh fan but that whole story was a whole bunch of nothing.
In my experience..
When you let politicians get away with so called "little things" is when they start to think they can get away with what I like to call "big things".
Like the Olympics. Or the Convention Center "remodeling".
Fair enough
But perhaps if early voting was allowed we would avoid bigger issues on election days like, oh i dunno, running out of ballots during a gubernatorial election?
Believe he relocated to
Believe he relocated to Virginia last year.
This diatribe
is a fine example of Walsh envy.
Sure it is!
You sure you don't want to erroneously call me a Connolly supporter?
Again?
And you must be so proud of the fabulous job our Mayah is doing!
Yes I'm happy.
Thank you for asking. Now breathe slowly into that brown paper bag.
Actually...
I'm breathing slowly into that vaporizer. Thank you!
We can agree that it's a day to celebrate.
Antonin Scalia can start dating again.
The absentee rules do look ridiculous.
If that's the law, it should obviously be followed.
But I just find it yet another instance of a fake liberal state that tries to make voting difficult while real liberal states try to make it easier to encourage electoral participation.
It basically looks like something the right wing in Florida would dream up as a variation of voter suppression.
It smacks of busy body OCD attorney types thinking too much in order to puff the billable hours. Actual instances of voter fraud have proven to be fairly minuscule.
It's a pity David can't find something juicier. I bet if you wait a while, it'll show up.
The real story
The real issue would be if they were specifically told not to vote that way and did. It's one thing to not be aware of a questionable law. It's another to be told by your boss not to do something and then do it anyway. Are there other places where his staff does what they want irrespective of what they are told?
They were specifically told this
From the link:
Personally, I think it's a dumb way to structure absentee voting (in CA you can vote absentee in advance for any damn reason you want, including personal convenience) but the campaigns were all warned. They then went and bragged about flouting that. Not the end of the world (nor the most corrupt thing Walsh & his team has done/will do) but it makes it somewhat noteworthy.
Early voting
Not sure this got much, if any, coverage when the law passed but Massachusetts is getting early voting next year.
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/massachusetts_gov_dev...
I also find it hard to believe Walsh's people were the only ones to do something like this, but that would make it a far less juicy headline.
Please
Spend your time and energy on things of some consequence. This is a topic for nit pickers.
Exactly
It's not like this "illegal" voting swayed the election or anything like that. And, as someone once said - stupid rules are meant to be broken.
This is a non-story
People voted who were properly registered to do so. They did not vote twice. They did not vote in the wrong ward, precinct, district, or city.
I think you must of missed the part
where, what occurred, is currently illegal.
You missed the other part
Where Bernstein notes that while it is illegal, it's been common practice, but this is the first time he's seen actual evidence of it.
I would imagine the Connolly crew, along with legions of Meninoites for 20 years before, did the same thing.
(personal disclosure- I have not missed a chance to vote since 1989, including quiet special elections, but I have only voted absentee once. I was over 3,000 miles away for that city council preliminary, but I gotta keep the streak alive.)
"it's not what you say...
...it's the way that you said it."
Yes, it's illegal and it's happening and no one cares. I think the actual issue here is one of the tone of the article.
Should the angle of the article have been that the law is stupid and should be changed? A number of the posters on Bernstein's Facebook page, hacks though they may be, make the point that the reason why this is happening is because these politically-inclined folks are working all-day on election day frequently outside of their own voting ward and would find it difficult to squeeze voting into that 12-14 hour day or whatever. A slightly questionable assertion, but no doubt it complicates an already stressful and busy day. Being able to just vote in advance and then spend the day helping get out the vote would be a good thing. They aren't trying to undermine the democratic process, they are working hard to get people engaged in it (or ensure themselves a cushy hack job, depending on how cynical you are) - so maybe the law should be changed to ensure that this can happen legally.
But the article (especially the lede) is obviously implying skullduggery of Curleyesque proportions (vote early and vote often! from the grave if necessary!). I agree that give an imperious mayor an inch and they will assume they shit ice cream, should not be questioned and should have neighborhoods posthumously named after them. But really, Bernstein's knowingly lame description of the harried Boston voter:
Really? Our pathetic rate of voter participation is because we're all working 3 jobs with 12 kids and no time to go vote.... The article just reeks of trying to stir up a stink where there's barely a fart. As a Globe or Herald article, I wouldn't even pay attention, but coming from Bernstein, who is probably the best current journo covering Boston (now from afar), I'm disappointed (which I'm sure he's very upset about).
It's also illegal to jaywalk
It's also illegal to jaywalk and speed. So what?
Not shocking at all
The guy used every trick in the book, including toward the end of the campaign putting special campaign signs in "low information" neighborhoods. The new signs had "DEMOCRAT" in big letters, which helped differentiate himself from the other candidate in a non-partisan election. Well, the other guy is a Democrat as well, but if you didn't know any better, only one made it clear. He was an easy choice for the low-information type that only vote along party lines.
It looks like his first term will just be a series of these types of things seeing the light day.
I would have loved an outsider, not some straight-out-of-casting townie, but that's neither here nor there.
5...4...3...2...
Prepare to be labeled a bigot.