State to reimburse Wareham $4,064 for early voting expenses

Jan 12, 2019

Wareham will be reimbursed $4,064 for early voting expenses related to the 2018 general election, state officials have announced.

In total, $1.1 million will be given to cities and towns to offset costs related to the election, according to State Auditor Suzanne Bump and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin.

The funds will come from money allocated to the Secretary’s Office by state lawmakers in a supplemental budget passed late last year. Bump’s office, at the request of Galvin, surveyed cities and towns on their mandated spending to meet the requirements of the early voting law.

The law, which passed in 2014, requires that municipalities allow any qualified voter to cast their ballot during a 12-day early voting period. The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office reported that more than 584,000 voters cast their ballots early during the 2018 general election cycle.

Bump’s office determined in 2017 that some part of the early voting law were an unfunded mandate on local governments. The determination cited the requirements that municipalities establish an early voting polling location that has sufficient staffing and privacy for voters as the factors driving the conclusion. As a result, communities were reimbursed $1,063,978.14 for spending related to early voting in the 2016 election.