WATCH LIVE: Secretary Galvin discussing anticipated voter turnout relating to the election

million and in fact we expect that will rise as more ballots are returned to us that means that we're going to have what I believe will be a record turnout not record by a great amount but a record we were almost 3.7 million participants in 2020 uh I think we will exceed that tomorrow I say that because as I've indicated already we have 1.7 almost having already beened returned we expect more votes and ballots to come back from the mail out ballots over the next 48 hours and in fact to that end I want to mention that we are strongly recommending that at this point voters who still have vote by mail ballots do not mail them if at all possible we return them to a Dropbox or take them into your city or town election offices you cannot drop them off at a polling place the dropboxes are your best option if you must mail it for whatever reason it's very important that it be postmarked prior to the end of the day tomorrow if it is postmarked by November 5th it will be counted assuming it's received by the local election officers by November the eth I think it's also important to point out to voters that at this point registration is closed so only registered voters will be able to participate in the election tomorrow I want to mention a few other things related to tomorrow's election the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 P.M Statewide uniformally people who are still waiting in line at 8:00 tomorrow evening will be allowed to vote there'll be a official queue or line set up and that will afford people the opportunity to vote we strongly recommend to voters first of all that before they go to the polls verify by looking at our website uh the registration status to make sure they are registered especially if they have moved over the last several years and have not voted over the last several years we would suggest they use our website also to determine precisely where their polling locations are polling locations change from year to year so if they use a where to vote feature of our s it they Tru will be benefited by that in terms of voting itself one of the things that is extremely important is that voters understand that in order to vote they need to mark all of the ovals or whatever the markings are because of the requirements we have to print ballots not just with five questions but to do it in multiple languages there are questions will be on the backside of several of the ballots to that extent we're reminding voters before they leave the Bing polling location to make sure and before they try to turn the ballot in to make sure to flip the ballot over to make sure they voted on both sides on all the questions and not miss any questions we think that we are prepared for this election we think that we have seen a remarkable turnout in terms of the level of participation we think people have appreciated the options that they've been presented with nevertheless it's my opinion that we will see more people actually turn out tomorrow than have participated so far to that extent I do believe we will exceed our record turnout of 2020 of 3.6 million almost 3.7 million uh we have now a significant number of new voters because of the registration changes that we've made so many voters find themselves on the roles having interacted with the registry of motor vehicles or other state agencies for all those reasons and the intensity of this election I do think we will have a record tuna as I've already mentioned lastly I want to mention as the now senior election administrator in the United States amongst all the states I think what we've seen over the last several weeks in the remarkable turnout of almost 80 million citizens under intense scrutiny with continued review of activities what we've seen is a commitment on the part of not just voters to participate F but also upon the about the Integrity of those who run elections in our country I may not agree with the policies or procedures of other states I may not certainly agree with the choice of candidates but I think I can tell you that the people who administer elections in the United States are people of Integrity they're honest people and the tallies they present are honest tallies and I think it's very important as our country approaches this pivot election in light of all that's happening over the last several years to reaffirm the basic honesty and integrity of those who conduct elections in our country and I think that we can be counting on that I think as we approach this very sensitive and intense election I think we can also be aware of the fact of the commitment of those people to the honesty of the process and democracy itself with that having been said I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have well yes let me let me elaborate a little bit if somebody is for some reason could be an inactive voter they haven't participated for several years they're still being carried on the roles but they haven't gone to vote and they're declared inactive if they are an inactive voter in order to vote tomorrow at the polls they will have to have some show of identification or commitment to that particular address they'll have to execute an affidavit at the time as well in order to participate in the election tomorrow this is not unusual uh we know especially in a presidential election people who come out to vote who've not voted regularly in the last over the last several years uh also as I if people move within a city they may want to see what where they're being carried are they being carried they new address so so those are the types of things I'm suggesting presumably they've done that we've had this site up for some time and we do think that gives people the opportunity to make sure they're prepared to come to the polls yes they have to it's done at the polls you know the the election workers there will give them the affidavit if necessary that only applies to inactive voters it does not apply to every other voter yes I can get a number for you uh in active vote like Most states or like all states really we're required to maintain our voter list to make sure that we give people the opportunity to be carried over on the list so oftentimes there's a lag period between the time that a voter might leave an address and relocate to another address whether it's in the state or out of the state and re-register so there'll probably be well over a million inactive voters most of these individuals will vote somewhere else or won't vote here or don't live here won't be attempting to vote under federal law we're required to make sure they're not purged from the list in case they have remained so what we want to make sure is that those persons are not surprised by the fact they may have to execute an affidavit in order to participate it happens all the time it's not a big problem and it's certainly not going to delay the process no in in m yes well in Massachusetts uh by law a police officer is present in every polling place and that's very important I think one of the things that I should mention also is that in terms of massachusett voting there's a 150 foot law that says political activity has to cease within 150 ft of a polling location that includes attire so individuals can't wear not just political paraphernalia but even a tire that clearly has a political slogan or something else U but in terms of security I think the police officer should be a reassurance not just to the voters but to election workers all everyone who's participating because it means that the there is a network already in place to make sure if any issue arises it can be dealt with no we haven't we're not aware of any particular threats as this the phrase goes it's not about that I think we're concerned about the general atmosphere but we do think uh given what we've seen at the locations we've had don't forget we've had early inperson locations going now for a couple of weeks we did have up till last Friday uh where many voters were coming out I was at Several of them myself uh there were no activities there that were of concern uh I think we make it clear to everybody that you can't wear par paraphernalia hats or shirts and it applies across the board irrespective your party so that that having been said I I don't we don't see any particular security issue sorry well it's the presidential election the presidential election clearly is the Premier event we do the ballot questions and as you know we distributed the booklet to everybody there are five questions U they touch as you know on a range of topics we strongly advise people to either read the booklet there will be book available at the polls read carefully the questions before they answer them you had a question no I mean we've had no issues specific issues to us I mean our experience here in Massachusetts has generally been well we've had some behavioral issues with some people coming into election offices not recently but over the last four years uh looking we looking for records that don't exist we've had issues but we've had no physical threats which we're very grateful for uh we're not aware of any particular matter as I said the the run through we've already had with the uh early voting in person sessions gives everyone a sense of the atmosphere and I think it's been very positive yes right well that's not new uh we have a number of cities in our commo and towns that are under the Voting Rights Act because of the populations that live there in terms of language issues the justice department in every election Works closely with us we held a preliminary meeting the election director meets with our election director meets with them as well as other groups who are interested in observing the election and with that in mind we anticipate they're going to provide review as they do pretty much on enforcement of their issues which primar generally relate to language and the communities that have been selected by them all have language issues no well I mean we've had the usual issues on mail and ballots which are people are concerned about when they when they get them how to return them uh we know right now one of the reasons I'm speculating we're going to have a turnout exceeding our record of 2020 is we have almost 300,000 uh vote by mail ballots that are still outstanding that we mailed out now we know some of those people chose uh to go to an early voting session and already voted in person we already know that we suspect more will choose to vote in person tomorrow but we still think there's a significant number that will be returned as early ballots by mail which is why I brought up the Dropbox issue and the return issue so with that in mind um you know we've had no real issues we want to make sure we did by mailing them out early the people got them if there was any issue if there was a Mis placed ballot of some kind could be replaced and that's what's happened go ahead certified well they can't be certified till the books and the elections are closed so I already mentioned to you there three days the the ballots cast in Massachusetts if they're sent back by mail and postmark have to be included there's 10 days for overseas ballads which primarily military people so the final results could not even be certified until that time what there will be is unofficial results of course and we'll be hearing those and seeing those but the certified results won't occur till after that then in Massachusetts the final results are certified by the governor and Council usually that occurs in early December the uh Electoral College meets on December 17th and obviously everything has to be completed before that it can be it could be I I H that out as a last resort though the Postal Service itself said to us they couldn't deliver they couldn't be assured of delivery or assur delivery within Beyond seven days that's last Tuesday so we've been saying for some time if you're getting into that area you don't want to put in the mail because they may not get it in time you can still mail it if it's h it has to be postmarked by the fifth in order to be counted so if you're going to mail it if you felt you had to mail it what I would suggest is you go into a post office and have them hand cancel it showing that you brought it to the post office today or tomorrow and then hope it gets deliver by the three days on by Friday which is the 8th that's that's why the mail is perilous way the dropboxes are better at this point or take it have some bring it into the election office you can't bring it to the polls you simply can't go to your polling place and drop it off you can't do that yes and you don't have to bring the ballot with you as long as you have as long as you've not returned it if I should mention if you have cast a mail in Ballot or you voted in person and now you suddenly decide you want to change your mind on one of the ballot questions too late you voted you're gone that's it uh so if you're in line at 8:00 and that has happened here in the presidential elections we will set up what is known as a q an official line and a police officer will be placed at the end of the line at 8:00 so no one else can get in the line but you will be allowed to vote even if it takes till 9:00 or 10:00 whatever it's going to take you'll be allowed to vote there was a line and it was a q well it no it was over at 5: the line was closed at 5: but everybody who was in the line was allowed to vote uh what it tells us is the level of Interest that's why I you know I'm looking at the numbers from the last pres few presidential elections and we've been exceeding our number every single time the question was will we do it this time uh and I think we well and I'm basing that on the fact that we have as I said 1.7 roughly already cast we think that's going to go up I do believe at least 50% again based upon past experiences that at least 50% of the total turnout will come tomorrow so if that's the case then you go over 36 we're over where we were that's what I think but I think what you're speaking to is the level of interest and I think the level of interest is there I think it's further enhanced by the fact that we continue to see polling which if if nobody else in this country agrees apparently all the pollsters do it's close so if that's the case then that only intensifies the impact of each and every vote secretary both sides have most exped offici on your does that sound like an accurate assessment I think it's an they're all important because think of all the things that happened over the four years I mean four years ago uh when we had again a very intense election all the activities that occur every presidential term is different and the challenges the country and the world faces are different so it's always important I think what the current description speaks to is the the differences between the two nominees their outlooks uh without getting into the partisan issues they're very they I think that's one thing they probably would agree on they're very distinctive they have totally different approaches uh there's a lot to choose between and people have that sense so it is important clearly I think as I said and the reason I specifically brought up the activities of Elections and election administrators is that I think for many people uh this is a very important election in terms of the process that are we going to be able to rely on the process I say we are but I think for many voters they're very concerned about that and I think they should be I have spoken with some of them um we we were in regular contact with many of them especially in New England but Beyond New England uh you know I've I've spoken with a number of them over the last several months we've all been talking about this for a long time earlier on a month or so ago our National Association which is bipartisan uh had a a phone call jointly with the Postmaster General to express our concerns about his the activities of the post office so we've had a lot of communication between the states the laws vary obviously I don't I think I I happen to think and I'm very proud of the fact that we've we offer all these options to voters I think we have the best system in the country and many other states see that for a lot of reasons they they couldn't do that the state legislature wouldn't approve it the courts wouldn't approve it the atmosphere wasn't right but but I I think we despite that we all have the same fundamentals which is citizens who have the right to vote should get their ballots count counted if they vote and making sure they can vote and I think that's the commitment we have to honesty and accuracy well we're not I mean when you say political violence uh our focus is on the polls and as I've already mentioned we have a police officer by law at every polling location we've had uh training sessions with our election officials our local election officials over the last couple of months we've discussed with them the types of situations they might confront I'm not going to go into the details but we are prepared we have been prepared and I think as I've already mentioned we've already had an excellent dress rehearsal with the early voting sessions you had I was out to Needum on the kickoff day and we had hundreds of people coming into town hall uh variety of people different opinions and they were all participating handled very well I think this gave everyone a sense of the reality of voting and we're pleased but we saw in that process and I'm hoping it votes well for tomorrow well were there a contests which aren't many uh I think the legislative races again whether there a contest I think primarily the open seats uh in the Senate there's an open seat on the Sou there's a couple of open seats uh and there are a couple of challenges in the house there's most it's mostly the open seats there aren't to many challenged races or a couple but not many well they're not volunteers municipalities pay people to work the polls uh so we we we think we're fully staffed uh obviously that was a concern we did have a large number of Clerks change over over the last last four years we had a lot of new clerks this is the first election they've run a presidential election they've run so you know we work closely to train them but we've told them repeatedly to make sure they have have all of their workers prepared trained my office has run training sessions for workers throughout the state uh we also I should mention they know it but I'll reiterate it uh we do have facilities at every polling location for persons with disabilities who are able allowing them to vote without assistance which is extremely important to them we've trained those people and we have equipment in every polling location to do that so we've done the training and we we're satisfied with it as I said the early voting experience the early voting sessions have given us an excellent opportunity to run through the process once again yes well we've discussed dropboxes for some time now yes the dropboxes are primarily located very approximate to uh Town Offices often times police stations uh for the most part there were only one or two drop boxes in most communities which are going to be emptied throughout the day uh we we had concerns over the longer period of time last week with Halloween some of the communities took extra precautions uh but so far it's been well done I think as we get down the stretch here through today and tomorrow uh they'll be protected everyone knows they're there and that's why was suggesting to people if they have a ballot they need to get back right now the Dropbox is the best approach it's going to come in or bring it right into city of town hall if you don't comfortable with the drop box any other questions well again uh the polls are open from 700 am to 8:00 pm uh we hope anybody who has not yet participated takes the opportunity to participate reminding everybody again both sides make sure you get all the questions some communities have more than five questions they may have local questions so it's important to get everything uh that you need to do done before you turn your ballot back in and that's the other thing here in Massachusetts you know we only have paper ballots the voters themselves take the ballot and put it right and deposit it right into the box and I think that builds confidence and the Box will be tabulated and combined with all the other ballots that have been previously uh put together to be tabulated again thank you very much much vote early but not often