Voters across Massachusetts will have the opportunity to head to the polls ahead of time for the state primary elections on Sept. 3.
Secretary of State William Galvin made a stop in Springfield Wednesday to announce early voting across the state, giving the public more opportunities to vote.
Early voting across Massachusetts begins on Saturday, Aug. 24 and will run through Friday, Aug. 30 with various races in western Massachusetts.
"We need to make sure everyone has the opportunity to participate. We want to get the information out there," said Galvin, adding that with both mail-in and early voting ballots, the turnout numbers in western Massachusetts have been higher than the rest of the state in the last three elections. Galvin expects the high turnout to remain the same for the upcoming primary and general election.
Springfield has already seen a large number of requests for mail-in ballots, with 4,000 people having voted by mail so far.
Galvin also noted that expanded access to voting has also been a bipartisan boost for turnout despite the opinion, by some, that mail in ballots can pave the way for voter fraud to occur.
A large amount of the mail-in ballots requested in the city of Springfield were sent out to registered Republican voters despite having a small number of enrolled voters within the city. Safety precautions in the form of barcodes on the ballot and voters signatures are verified by election personnel to make sure the ballot being submitted is legitimate, officials said.
"The staff has been extremely excited. They have actually troubleshooted different methods of making it easier not only for themselves, but for the voters, so that we can make sure that people take interest and continue to vote by mail and vote early," said Springfield City Clerk and Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola-Lopez, adding that the city is prepared for early voting. "We've had wonderful support from Secretary Galvin's office and from Mayor Domenic Sarno. He's allowed us to hire temporary staff to kind of fill in the gaps where our election staff is busy."
Several state senate and representative seats are being contested across western Massachusetts, such the Democratic ticket for the Hampden District State Senate seat currently held by Adam Gomez. He will go against Springfield City Councilor Malo Brown. State Rep. Bud Williams, D- Springfield will also face a primary race against Johnnie R.S. Mcknight, a former mayor and city council candidate. There is also a three-way race for the representative seat of the Third Berkshire District.
