Massachusetts could see more than 3.6 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election, breaking the record set four years ago, said Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin.
“All in all, I think we will see a good day tomorrow,” Galvin said during a news briefing Monday, a day before the presidential election.
In the past two weeks, voters have cast more than 2.3 million ballots either through mail-in voting or at the polls. Galvin said earlier this month the state was poised to surpass the record-setting 2016 presidential election, where the state cast 3.3 million votes.
Galvin said most of those who have voted using a mail-in ballot or an early voting location live in the suburbs, while less than one-quarter of urban voters have cast their ballots early. Galvin said most urban voters likely will vote Tuesday.
“We believe that voting will be safe tomorrow,” Galvin said.
While some mail-in ballots arrived after the state’s receipt deadline and weren’t counted, local election officials plan to count ballots that come in after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Under the emergency voting law, local election officials are allowed to continue counting those late ballots until Nov. 6.
President Donald Trump has repeated claims that votes cast after Election Day should not been counted, NPR reported. Galvin said he called the claims “appalling” and “disgraceful.”
“Here in Massachusetts, it has been our practice for many many years that members of the military — if they mail their ballot and had their ballot postmarked by the date of the election — the ballot will be counted, even if it’s received 10 days later,” Galvin said.
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