The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • A12

A12 A A 1 7 2 0 2 0 Prosecutors are discussing action to remedy what the Trump administration has done and to prevent them from further interfering with the operations of the Postal Healey said in a phone interview Sunday. ing is happening now. This is a now The Washington Post first reported the possible litigation Sunday, which involves attor- neys general from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Washington, and North Caroli- na, among others, and is fo- cused on how they could sue the administration to prevent operational changes or fund- ing lapses that could affect the election. Jo a a changes, including eliminating overtime, as cost-cutting mea- sures. But created a days- long backlog of mail delivery in parts of the country, and, ac- cording to lawmakers, prompt- ed the Postal inspec- tor general to agree to launch a probe into the agency, includ- ing recent staffing and pol- icy Massachusetts was among dozens of states warned last month by the Postal Service that ballots cast by mail for the November election could ar- rive late even if sent before the state-imposed deadline, rais- ing the prospect of an untold number of votes going un- counted.

Both Healey and Secretary of State William F. Galvin have urged Massachusetts voters who plan to submit their bal- lots by mail to do so as early as possible, and Healey urged res- idents to to have faith in the Postal de- spite what she called efforts to undermine it. Asked if she intends to vote by mail, Healey said she decided, but turned to the courts in the past for immediate relief when Trump has done some- thing illegal or unconstitution- al. likely be doing that to- gether, to say we really need to uphold the integrity of our electoral Healey, a Democrat, said of her and oth- er attorneys general. uPOSTAL SERVICE Continued from Page A1 seen from Donald Trump is an effort to undermine the electoral process, to create chaos and doubt in The Massachusetts Legisla- ture passed and Governor Charlie Baker signed a law in July that allows each of Massa- registered 4.6 mil- lion voters to cast an absentee ballot by mail for the Sept.

1 state primary and Nov. 3 gen- eral election. More than a dozen states have already taken measures to expand voting options in the face of COVID-19 including Massachusetts, the Globe has reported. But repeated politi- cal attacks on voting by mail, combined with the changes or- dered by DeJoy, have stoked fears that voters could be dis- enfranchised this fall. Galvin, the top elec- tions official, told the Globe Friday that the earlier warning from the Postal Service was at best bureaucratic action to cover and at worst, effort to create doubt and similar to unsubstantiated at- tacks on voting by mail.

is undermining the saf- est voting method during a pandemic and forcing people to cast a ballot in Col- orado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told the Post. is For months, election offi- cials in both major political parties have been encouraging voters to cast their ballots by mail to avoid coronavirus in- fection. The effort has worked, with record numbers voting by mail in a slew of primaries this spring and summer and planning to do so again in No- vember, according to numer- ous public polls. More than 180 mil ion Americans are now eligible to vote by mail in the fall after many states relaxed their rules. Galvin is expected to pro- vide on Tuesday the number of people who have requested ballots in Massachusetts.

Elec- tion experts say expanding vote-by-mail options has in- creased turnout, especially in primaries. In Massachusetts state primary races topped 30 percent turnout since 1992, state data show. But the president, lagging in the polls behind presumed Democrat ic nominee Joe Biden, has been lobbing non- stop attacks on voting by mail, last month going as far as to suggest that the elect ion should be delayed until people can vote. States that have embraced universal mail voting have doc- umented tiny rates of ballot fraud, data show. Trump has also said he opposes billions of dollars in urgently needed election funding for the states and the Postal Service because he does not want states to make it easier for Americans to vote by mail.

In an appearance Sunday on of the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows appeared to back off earlier com- ments, saying the president is open to legislation that would ensure adequate funding to manage the surge of mail bal- lots this fall. Meadows also said no postal sorting ma- chines will be taken offline be- tween now and Nov. 3, insist- ing that previous removals were part of a plan that predat- ed the Trump administration. president of the Unit- ed States is not going to inter- fere with anybody casting their vote in a leg i imate way, whether the post office or anything Meadows said. But in the same interview, Meadows emphasized the concern about bal- lot fraud, even though he was unable to point to evidence of widespread fraud.

no evidence that he said. Material from The Washington Post was used in this report. Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. CAMPAIGN 2020 Healey weighs joining suit to prevent USPS cuts The initiative, listed as Ques- tion 2 on the ballot, has been endorsed by more than half of the Massachusetts congressio- nal delegation, the head of the NAACP branch, and former governors Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and Bill Weld, a Republ ican. The Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Committee behind the initiative is well funded, taking at least $1 mil- lion in donations from out-of- state groups, including one founded by a billionaire and former Enron trader.

No formal opposition group has lined up against it. And the concept appears to be gaining momentum in the Northeast winning over- whelming approval from New York City voters in November. But while having voters rank their choices has roots in other countries, and even in Holly- Oscar voting, there are divergent studies about its im- pact on minority candidates and Black voters. There are also arguments about whether a more complicated voting sys- tem would turn off the elector- ate, undercutting its theoretical benefits. A poll re- leased last week found voters genuinely split: 36 percent say they supported the ballot ques- tion and 36 percent opposed it.

More than one-quarter of those surveyed said they were undecided. not sure a bad idea. just not sure a good enough idea to vote on said Eitan Hersh, an associate pro- fessor of political science at Tufts University who studies voting rights and the adminis- tration of elections. a million Ranked-choice voting, oth- uRANKED CHOICE Continued from Page A1 erwise known as instant-runoff voting, is straightforward on its face. Voters rank one or more candidates on their ballot, and if a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, he or she is the winner.

But if no one does, the candidate with the fewest votes is stripped away, and those voters are reallocated based on their second choice. The process goes for as many rounds as it takes for one candidate to earn more than 50 percent. The new system, if approved by voters on Nov. 3, would be used for primary and general elections for statewide offices governor, attorney general, and more as well as legislative, congressional, and district at- torney offices starting in 2022. It would not apply to presiden- tial elections or municipal elec- tions, supporters say.

also not theoretical. Two years after voters in Maine ad- opted ranked-choice voting in 2016, making it the first state in the country to do so, Represen- tative Bruce Poliquin, a Repub- lican, lost his seat to Democrat Jared Golden despite getting more first-place votes. Poliquin failed to reach a majority, and Golden later prevailed, boosted by second- and third-place votes from those whose first choice were two independent candidates. The system is designed to help eliminate those third-party candidates who pull enough votes from one candidate that it throws the lec ion to another. Pam Wilmot, of Common Cause Massachusetts, said it also pro- vides a disincentive for negative campaigning, prodding candi- dates to appeal to a broader base of voters.

will be a leader in the nation if we adopt Wilmot said. not an effort that helps Democrats or helps Re- publicans or plays into that par- tisan divide. about electing the candidate that has the most In Massachusetts, Demo- cratic primaries for open seats often draw an array of candi- dates, who in many cases win a majority. Representative Lori Trahan won her 2018 Democratic primary with less than 22 percent of the vote, and Representative Katherine Clark won a 2013 special primary with less than 32 percent. A similar fate likely awaits this nine-person Democratic primary in the Fourth Congres- sional District.

Representative Ayanna Pressley, who co-sponsored fed- eral ranked-choice voting legis- lation, said an important part of having a government that accurately reflects the will of every The bal- lot can be more complicated can look a little like an SAT Wilmot said but sup- porters dismissed concerns that overly complex. disrespect to the people of Maine, no smarter than we are here in Massachu- said Evan Falchuk, a for- mer third-party gubernatorial candidate and chairman of the Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Committee. simple, Not to everyone. In Maine, there has been a stream of liti- gation and ballot questions tar- geting the system, including one initiative pushed this year by the Republican Party though it appears unsuccess- ful to delay and repeal its ex- pansion to presidential elec- tions. A ruling in a lawsuit seek- ing to strike down the system could come as soon as this week.

person, one vote. the bedrock of American said Jim Lyons, the Massachusetts Republican Par- ty chairman, who argued ranked-choice voting would our The new system could also add costs for election officials, who likely would have to pur- chase new software and ensure ballots are processed at a cen- tral facility for races requiring multiple rounds. Recounts, such as the near weeklong one confirming Trah- primary victory, could be more complex, potentially ex- tending the already time-con- suming process. Even in Gold- win in Maine, it took nine days after election day until he was declared the winner. And there are other chal- lenges: Maine officials said this month they had to re-tabulate results from four July primaries decided by ranked-choice be- cause errors prompted 13,000 ballots to be missed.

(The out- comes of the race ultimately change.) some voter out- reach and investing both time and money you have a system that improves much on what we already said Jes- se Clark, a PhD candidate at MIT closely studied ranked-choice voting. Nonetheless, unlike other major ballot question initia- tives, no formal committee has organized to oppose the ques- tion. The Ranked Choice Voting 2020 Committee, meanwhile, is planning to launch television, radio, and digital advertising ahead of Election Day, accord- ing to Falchuk, and it already raised and spent more than $1.1 million by the end of 2019, the most recently available re- cords show. a i a i $800,000 from Action Now Ini- tiative, which was founded by John Arnold, a former energy hedge fund manager and Enron trader, and has spread money to similar efforts around the country. Unite PAC which has taken $3.8 million this cycle from Kathryn Mur- doch, the daughter-in-law of Rupert Murdoch gave it an- other $250,000 last year.

only on the ballot now af- ter not moving for years in the Democratic-controlled Legisla- ture, where Wilmot, of Com- mon Cause, suggested such an overhaul can be to incumbents, who control the flow of bills. Should the ballot question pass, it also remains to be seen whether state lawmakers re- work major parts of it or delay it, as famously done for other voter-approved laws. still trying to under- stand how this really works and whether a place like Massachu- setts could handle said state Senator Barry Finegold, an An- dover Democrat and co-chair- man of the Joint Committee on Election Laws. still feel like we have all the Available research has of- fered seemingly disparate con- clusions, particularly the sys- effect on candidates and voters of colors. Jason McDan- iel, an associate professor of po- litical science at San Francisco State University, found in a 2016 study that the implemen- tation of instant-runoff voting in mayoral elections in the city helped drive down turnout, in- cluding among Black voters.

But FairVote, a nonprofit that is pushing ranked choice nationally, found in a 2018 study of ranked-choice elec- tions in four California cities that the percentage of minority candidates who won their races increased. Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, said ranked-choice vot- ing, or RCV, can make elections more fair and inclusive. can help increase the diversity of she said, running and win- ning Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Ballot question offers option on voting: ranked choice CRAIG F. 2016 There are divergent studies about the impact of ranked- choice voting on minority candidates and Black voters.

By Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California an- nounced Sunday that she will call the House back from its an- nual summer recess for a vote this week on legislation that will block the Postal Service from enforcing any changes to policy that was in place at the start of the year. The House was not sched- uled to return for votes until Sept. 14, but the vote will most likely be on Saturday, according to a senior Democratic aide fa- miliar with the plans. Repre- sentative Steny Hoyer of Mary- land, the majority leader, is ex- pected to announce the final schedule Monday. livelihoods and the life of our American democracy are under threat from the presi- Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers.

is why I am calling upon the House to return to session later this The abrupt return to Wash- ington comes as Democrats called on top Postal Service offi- cials Sunday to testify on Capi- tol Hill this month about recent policies that they warned pose grave threat to the integrity of the and under- scores the growing alarm over changes the Postal Service is en- forcing less than three months before a general election in which many Americans will most likely cast their votes by mail. Some of the changes in- clude ending overtime pay or any changes that would delay mail. It is unclear whether the Senate will take up the legisla- tion, which would require the agency to maintain current ser- vice standards until Jan. 1, 2021, or until after the pan- demic is over. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said Sunday that he planned to introduce similar legislation in his chamber.

Speaking at an event in New York, he said he would also demand that Sena- tor Mitch McConnell of Ken- tucky, the majority leader, bring senators back to Capitol Hill to vote on a similar stand-alone provision if Pelosi passed her own version in the House. The move reflects growing alarm among Democrats and voting-rights advocates about changes enacted under Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and a Trump megadonor, that have resulted in delays in deliv- ery and curtailed service. They said the changes undermine casting ballots by mail when millions are expected to do so because of the coronavirus pan- demic, pointing to the Postal decision to tell states that it may not be able to meet their deadlines for delivering last-minute mail-in ballots. postmaster general and top Postal Service leader- ship must answer to the Con- gress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions just months before the the law- makers said Sunday. DeJoy had been scheduled to appear be- fore the House Oversight Com- mittee in late September, and lawmakers have already re- quested information about the changes, like cutting overtime and removing mail-sorting ma- chines.

But Pelosi and Representa- tive Carolyn Maloney of New York, chair of the House Over- sight Committee, pressed for DeJoy and Robert Duncan, chair of the Postal Service Board of Governors, to testify Aug. 24. Schumer and Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, said Sen- ate Democrats had begun inves- tigating the slowdown in mail deliveries. The changes under DeJoy, who has significant financial in- terests in the Postal ri- vals and contractors, have prompted concerns about its politicization. Pelosi to recall House for vote on Postal Service KATY DAILY NEWS VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS People gathered in front of the post office in Midland, last week to protest recent changes to Postal Service operations under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy..