Pinned to a bulletin board in Will Rosenberry’s office is a mail-in ballot request card returned with an angry sentiment scribbled in large black Sharpie: “This is fraud.”
Rosenberry — Lowell’s elections director — and other local elections officials call this type of response “love notes,” received since mail-in voting became widespread during COVID-19.
While election officials have a sense of humor, their work is serious business. They say these types of “love notes” have dwindled since the early days after mail-in voting ramped up — but local voters still have concerns.
Among them, Lowell is a diverse city with a large immigrant community that has seen multiple federal immigration enforcement actions. Rosenberry says he’s heard from voters concerned about an intimidating presence.
“I do worry about voter confusion, just believing the myths and being fearful of the process and staying home and not coming to vote as a result of all the confusion,” he said. “I don’t want people to be afraid. I want people to come out and vote, whether that’s early, in person or by mail.”
Storm clouds have been looming over this November’s elections. President Donald Trump has launched sweeping efforts to change how elections are run and regularly attacks the integrity of the election system. The office in charge of Massachusetts’ elections received “suspicious mail” with powder last week, similar to other concerning envelopes received at offices of election officials and senators around the country and now under investigation.
And citizens’ fears persist — about election security, about federal interference, about immigration enforcement coming to the polls.
But those on the front lines of every election, local officials who keep the system running, say they are focused on the midterms and making sure the system runs smoothly.
“It’s not some giant deep state that’s processing your ballot. It’s a guy you know from church and a guy you know from softball.”Joe Vizard, Waltham elections clerk
“Whatever happens in Washington isn’t gonna stop us from having an election,” said Joe Vizard, Waltham’s elections clerk. “It shouldn’t stop people from voting. People shouldn’t feel scared to vote. They should feel like they can come and make their voice heard.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has joined other attorneys general in several multi-state lawsuits fighting federal actions to change the elections processes, including the Justice Department’s push for a sweeping voter database.
And recent polling has shown most Americans are confident that their local government can run a fair and accurate election.
GBH News checked in with the key election officials in four Massachusetts communities — Waltham, Lynnfield, Billerica and Lowell — to sample perspectives in places with different demographics and voter bases, from solidly Democratic to Republican leaning.
Here’s what they said.
Lowell
Population of 120,000; about 79,000 registered voters
Rosenberry emphasizes election workers are all “Lowellians” — members of the community ready to help first-time and longtime voters.
Like all local elections officials, Rosenberry conducts training for those workers, which includes procedures for handling everything from voting questions to security issues.
Under state law, a local police officer or constable is stationed at every polling place. Workers know to contact city hall officials with problems, Rosenberry said.
“My poll workers are always concerned. We hear through the news that Trump is going to be sending federal agents or ICE in the polling places,’’ he said. ”So I’m constantly having to prepare my poll workers and train them on what to do if that were the reality.”
Lowell is the only Massachusetts municipality with a trilingual ballot — English, Spanish and the Cambodian language Khmer. With nine ballot questions this midterm, and everything translated into three languages, Rosenberry said Lowell’s ballot this year could be “the longest ballot in Massachusetts history.”
With such a long ballot, he expects delays at the polls: It will take voters a long time to fill out their ballots and deposit them into tabulators. For this reason, Rosenberry is encouraging voters to vote early, in-person or by mail.
Prior to his current post in Lowell, he says he spent nearly two decades working on elections for the Massachusetts secretary of state. He’s surprised at how “combative” elections have become.
“It’s an important process and we do maintain integrity throughout the whole thing, but I have seen the evolution to this new election denialism, which is very disheartening and very discouraging to somebody who’s invested their entire career in this,” he said.
Still, Rosenberry has no doubt that the current system runs with integrity and accuracy.
“Since I’ve come on, we’ve had audits and recounts and we have demonstrated that the process works here in Lowell,” he said.
Waltham
Population of about 66,000; 37,433 registered voters
Vizard, Waltham’s elections clerk, said his workers are concerned about federal and other election monitors being sent to polling places. He instructs them that election observers aren’t new, and he doesn’t expect any federal law enforcement activity.
Waltham used to have more observers, he said, especially people wanting to see how mail-in votes were being processed.
“Usually the observer comes and they see that it’s like, ‘Oh, John from the street over there and this one.’ And it’s not some giant deep state that’s processing your ballot. It’s a guy you know from church and a guy you know from softball,” Vizard said.
He says the process of mail-in voting, first put into place during COVID-19, is now smooth, with frequent training offered by the Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office. And he hears fewer complaints from voters.
Vizard recalled his predecessor ran elections smoothly after 9/11 and then during COVID-19 — “One of the scariest times we faced, a pandemic, we got together and had an election,” he said.
Still, he added, “I think there’s always going to be a segment of the population that’s a little distrustful of vote-by-mail.”
Lynnfield
Population of about 13,000; 10,107 registered voters
Stephanie Jarosz, Lynnfield’s town clerk, previously worked as an elections official in Lowell and Dracut. Asked about challenges to the voting process, Jarosz looks back on what drew her to the work.
“What I hope gravitates a lot of town and city clerks to their position is the core belief in voting and being interested. As I quickly came to find out, I cannot express my own personal political beliefs, but I still had an idealism that every individual who’s a citizen is entitled to vote and should vote,” Jarosz said.
And there may be a silver lining in all the noise around elections: She points to rising participation during midterm elections, typically a time of lower turnout.
“If anything, I feel like people are more interested than they were previously,” she said.
Jarosz says she’s seen a rise in the number of election observers — mostly individual residents who “have been hearing about election security concerns and wanted to see in-person themselves, which they have a right to.”
“I would say we have a lot more observers than we had 10 years ago, but being in elections, you should welcome that. It’s people being interested,” she said, adding people who want to observe should notify their clerk in advance.
And like others, she urges people to exercise their right to vote.
“I want people to come out and vote — whether that’s voting by mail or voting early in-person or on Election Day. My biggest takeaway is go out, make your voice heard, go vote,” Jarosz said.
Billerica
Population of about 42,000; 33,000 registered voters
“Billerica residents are concerned about elections, but we’re doing everything that is possible to assure them that it is safe and secure,” said Sandra Giroux, Billerica’s town clerk.
Giroux is relatively new to elections management, but has already become seasoned in voter questions, especially about mail-in ballots. And she has answers at the ready: People can track ballots online and call her office. The ballot dropbox — under a surveillance camera — is locked and emptied daily.
“So everything is secure,” she said. “You walk in through a locked door, you go through a second locked door and then they’re locked in a closet. So it is a safe and secure process.”
After voting, Giroux said ballots are escorted by a constable and never left unattended. Then, once back at her office, “we secure them again.”
Asked about national debates over bills that would, for instance, change how people register to vote, Giroux said she doesn’t see a reason to change the way the voter lists are being kept. But Giroux acknowledges that it doesn’t matter what she “personally” thinks.
“If the law changes, we follow the law,” she said. “We don’t act on our own as town clerks. We follow the law, that is our job.”
And she urges people not to “focus on the noise.”
“Voting is a right, it is a privilege and it is safe. It is the best way to get your opinion heard,” she said. “If you teach children how to be civic partners, it just grows from there.”
Billerica celebrates new voters, she said, especially 18-year-olds who’ve just become eligible to cast their own ballots.
“When they find out it’s a first-time voter, you will hear cheers and applause go up,” Giroux said. “They celebrate first-time voters.”
