BOSTON — The big question from many: when will my “mail-in” ballot arrive?
The process is underway right now in town and city halls across the state.
In Newton, poll workers are spread out across city hall to provide social distancing.
Staffing will take place from 8:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. to seal and send a record setting amount of mail in ballots to voters for the upcoming general election.
For city clerk David Olson, it’s been the most unique election he has ever been a part of.
“It is, usually we have got a thousand, 15,000 absentee ballots that we have to be mailed at each election and everybody else just shows up at the polling location to get their ballot,” said Olson. “Now with 31,000 to be mailed out, it is a huge undertaking – hugely different way of doing things."
Its poll workers like mother and daughter Kacy Sullivan and Donna Manley who will get that job done.
“We basically have a list of all the voters who have requested an absentee ballot,” said Sullivan.
“Inside here there is a matching bar code with a name and address, so we make sure those match up and put them in,” said Manley.
They move fast, getting around 150 ballots ready to be mailed per hour.
Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has reached out to local town and city clerks to help streamline the next step of getting ballots into mailboxes.
“We’ve suggested to local officials to make contact with the local postal authorities in their own community – especially those who would service their own town hall – to pick up ballots to come in as they get closer,” said Galvin.