Saying he is confident that more than 3 million ballots will be cast in the November general election and that political parties will be “very active” in encouraging early voting, Secretary of State William Galvin told a state budget writing committee that Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget proposal falls short of adequate election funding. “The governor’s appropriation proposal is better than, obviously, it was this time last year,” Galvin told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday morning. “Nevertheless, there are still things that need to be addressed that I can’t speak to at this time with total confidence, but I don’t think the funding is adequate at the present time.
Last year, Galvin said that Baker had “drastically underfunded” the elections budget to the point that the state would not be able to afford to pay for presidential primary elections.
Looking forward to the state primary and general elections to be held next fiscal year, Galvin said he expects his office to spend more money than Baker has proposed to pay for the implementation of early voting across the state, which could carry extra costs.
Full Article: Galvin believes Baker underfunded new early voting requirement in budget | WWLP.com.