The Dorchester Reporter reports longtime election official Sabino Piemonte took the blame for the way precincts across the city ran out of ballots on Election Day: In figuring out how many ballots each precinct should get, he mistakenly subtracted the number of early-voting ballots from precincts' anticipated numbers twice. Still unanswered: What to do about City Hall not answering calls from ballot-short precincts.
The City Council today rejected a resolution by Councilors Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) and Erin Murphy (at large) calling on the state to take over the city election department because of Election Day problems that included numerous precincts across the city running out of ballots. Read more.
UMass Amherst is telling foreign students and faculty they probably want to be back on campus before the change of administration in Washington - and will provide housing for any undergraduate students who do return back from winter break early without a place to stay. Read more.
CommonWealth Beacon interviewed Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell on her agenda after Jan. 20:
At stake, she said, are the rule of law; reproductive rights; LGBTQIA+ rights; immigrants’ rights; racial justice; environmental justice; health care; education, including student loan programs; gun violence prevention; and federal benefits programs like Social Security and Medicaid.
Chris Lovett analyzes the presidential results across Boston wards - Democrats still won overall, but their numbers were down across the board.
The Dorchester Reporter reports Secretary of State Bill Galvin is looking at a temporary takeover of the Boston election department after a number of precincts ran out of ballots on Tuesday. The City Council wants answers as well.
Students at both Curry College in Milton and Stoughton High School received text messages today telling them they've been selected to pick cotton "at the nearest plantation." Read more.
The Trump fan who'd been beaming his logo on the Hanson town water tower only to have the town bring in an even more powerful white spotlight to drown it out was back at it again tonight after he noticed the town had removed its spotlight, so the town hauled it back and turned it on again.
In a statement tonight, Town Administrator Lisa Green said: Read more.
Louijeune calling for a hearing and soon.
Both Secretary of State William Galvin and the Boston City Council decided today to investigate how precincts across the city ran out of ballots and numerous other ways voters had obstacles placed in the way of casting their ballots, from one polling place not having any working lights to voters with disabilities being refused access to handicap parking spaces at another. Read more.
WCVB is tracking the numbers for the five statewide ballot questions.
The Boston Election Department has numbers for Boston-specific numbers for both ballot questions and elected offices.
Once people in the line outside the Bates got in, they got to stand in another line. Photo by Jessica Burko.
Update: At 7:36 p.m., the Boston Election Department reported that several precincts across the city had run out of ballots. Department said anybody in line at 8 would be allowed to vote.
Around 5:10 p.m., voting came to a halt at ward 18, precinct 10 at the Bates School in Roslindale: Poll workers had run out of ballots to give to voters. Read more.
The Justice Department is out with list of 86 cities across the country where it will be keep a watch for "compliance with federal voting rights laws," including Everett, Malden, Methuen, Quincy and Salem (as well as Fitchburg, Leominster and Lowell). Read more.
Roving UHub photographer Vivian Girard couldn't help but notice this electronic billboard beside the IBEW Local 103 hall as he took his morning walk through Clam Point in Dorchester, near the Southeast Expressway.
People who vote in Brookline this year - whether at early voting locations or at their normal polls on Election Day - won't be getting those hum-drum little oval "I Voted" stickers that voters in certain neighboring communities can expect. In a statement, Town Clerk Ben Kaufman said:
These stickers were made to increase attention to elections and help drive voter engagement. Any chance we have to talk to voters and encourage them to make their voices heard in our elections is an opportunity we will take.
A correspondent forwards this video of some Trump supporters in Brookline's Coolidge Corner today, waving, among other things, the flag Iran used until the Shah was overthrown in 1979, as the Orange One blares about how he'll ban vaccinations in schools and suppress transgender athletes, in one of the places least likely to vote for him - in 2020, Biden defeated tfg 87-11 in Brookline.
On Friday, some guy began using a spotlight to show the Trump logo on the town water tower. The town responds it's not putting up with nonsense like that so now town DPW workers have wheeled in a bright white spotlight of their own to try to blank out the Trump message - and the town attorney is getting ready to dun the guy $100 a day until he quits.
Town Administrator Lisa Green says the town is looking at buying a more powerful spotlight: Read more.
A small group of people yesterday protested the "censorship" of the bookstores in Harvard and Porter squares for allegedly refusing to carry any books by or about brainworm-adled whale-head enthusiast and Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Cambridge Day quoted one protester as saying, sure, she could just ask a bookstore to carry some of the dead-bear fan's tomes, but bookstores should know better and stock books she might serendipitously come across.
Boston Haitians and supporters gathered at the Embrace on Boston Common yesterday to support Haitians under attack in Springfield, OH. Ron Newman took some photos. Read more.
CommonWealth Beacon considers the decision by Sean O’Brien, a Medford native who worked his way up from Teamsters Local 25 in Charlestown to become president of the national union, not to have the union make an endorsement in this year's presidential election. It notes that a number of Teamsters locals have endorsed Harris, including Local 122 in Dorchester.
Associated Press reports the Secretary of State's office at Ashburton Place was one of 15 elections offices across the country targeted by somebody who sent powder-filled packages to them. The one here was intercepted by postal inspectors; in other states, the powder turned out to be flour.
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