The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • B4

b4 Metro Monday, oc tober 5 2 0 2 0 tacked baker as a (re- publican in name only) after the governor bucked the presi- monthslong criticisms of mail-in balloting. the Massa- chusetts gop later issued a statement backing concerns by citing local criti- cisms of a newly launched bal- lot application portal. the divide has meant baker has all but disconnected from the state party apparatus he once led. he and lieutenant governor Karyn polito, for ex- ample, are planning their own virtual fund-raisers for individ- ual legislative candidates this fall while the basic infra- structure is in flux. one of its accounts is on pace for its worst fund-raising cycle since 2008; it currently have an exec- utive director, and short a full slate of 80 state committee members.

the situation has prompted bubbling frustration within the party ranks about its ability not just to help down-ballot candi- dates this november, but to ex- pand the party beyond the con- servative corners lyons has so- lidified since winning the chairmanship in 2019. understand the methodology and the overall game plan that the party has been going after," said state representative shawn dooley, a republican from norfolk uGOP Continued from Page B1 also a state party commit- teeman. "it seem to be strategic. it seem to be targeted in particular areas. more pandering to the echo party leaders reject that, say- ing messaging, in particular, is left to the individual candi- dates.

have distanced them- selves fromwhatever trump-re- latedmessaging, and other can- didates have embraced it. their choice to said Janet fogarty, the national committeewoman. intent is to grow the party from all different it has nevertheless raised the question: should trump lose in november, next for a state party whose leader- ship has embraced views over those of baker, who has not said whether seek a third term in 2022? lyons, who is up for reelec- tion as chairman in January, did not respond to requests for comment. is an odd situation to be said rob gray, a veteran republican consultant. imag- ine the results of the presiden- tial election will be a reckoning, one way or the state gop has fielded candidates for the us senate, where Kevin is chal- lenging senator edward Mar- key, as well as for five of the nine congressional seats.

that includes the ninth dis- trict, where its nominee, helen brady, lives 40 miles outside its borders. (Members of congress have to live in the state they represent, but not the district.) Within the 200-seat legislature, republicans are challenging democratic incum- bents in 19 races, and the party has candidates running for sev- en open seats. they include Matt Kelly, challenging senator becca rausch in a dis- trict previously held by repub- licans, and susan smiley, a state committeewoman, vying in an openWorcester county race. the same number of non- incumbent republicans run- ning as in 2016, and a drop from 2018 midterm elec- tions, which are generally viewed as more favorable to the gop, when the party put up 24 challengers and 13 open-seat candidates. While baker easily won re- election by 33 percentage points that year, the party actu- ally lost ground on beacon hill after a democrat flipped an open republican district, and two republican incumbents lost, including lyons, who served four terms in the house.

the results reignited intra- party criticisms that holding the office came at the expense and focus of down- party contests, where the gubernatorial coattails have rarely extended. this year, republican candi- dates are generally promoting the effor of ing our schools open completely" amid the pandemic, said Mountain, the party vice chairman, and supporting police amid a na- tionwide movement, including inMassachusetts, to tighten ac- countability for law enforce- ment. the party also has adopted a a a in social media posts a campaign mantra baker used in his unsuccessful 2010 gubernatorial effort that even supporters said came off as gry." so far this year, republicans have largely faced losses. the state senate caucus, which counted seven members as recently as 2018, was slashed to four in the spring after dem- ocrats won special elections in republican-held districts. the party also lost a seat in the house, where its caucus sits at 31 members in the 160-seat body.

democrats view republican senator dean a. tran of fitch- burg as vulnerable this fall after an ethics investigation found he intertwined his public and po- litical work, and his senate col- leagues took the extraordinary step of barring him from inter- acting with his taxpayer-funded staff except through official e- mails. tran who ha den i ed wrongdoing, faces a challenge from democrat John cronin, a 30-year-old West point gradu- ate and army combat veteran who has both outraised the re- publican and poured $30,000 of his ownmoney into the race. (tran did not respond to a re- quest for comment.) know how you can run a high-functioning senate office if not allowed to speak with your said cronin, of lunenburg. think ethical leadership and integrity are on the the party is, to a degree, re- moved from the representative pits it found itself in after the 2006 election, when it was on the wrong end of what was the biggest political monopoly by either party in any state.

but af- ter doubling, from 16, the num- ber of republican state repre- sentatives it had in 2010 the same year scott brown won and for three years afterward held a us senate seat the party has struggled tomake sig- nificant gains beyond two victories. as of august, the Massachu- setts gop this cycle had pulled into its federal ac- count, which it can use for par- ty operations. an amount well behind the $5 million it raised during 2017 and 2018, and, party leaders say, tied to limitations brought on by the pandemic. compounding the money crunch, just 3,300 voters have registered with the gop since lyons was elected chairman, pushing its total to roughly 460,000 statewide. less than 9.9 percent of all Massa- chusetts voters, the low- est share since at least 1948.

like the direction that took after Jim lyons took said state representative randy hunt, who is not seeking reelection to his seat on cape cod. under- stand that the committee is committed to republicans. i get that. i just think being a republican in Massachusetts, this year in 2020, that an advantage of being out there and being a 100-percent trump Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him on Mass.

Republican Party looks to overcome Trump-Baker divide imagine the results of the presidential election will be a reckoning, one way or rob gray Veteran Republican consultant ineligible to vote by reason by death after casting the bal- senator barry r. finegold, cochairman of the committee on election laws, said lawmak- ers made the change to provide consistency with the different ways people could vote. say you vote per- at 9 a.m. and you drop dead of a heart attack at 10 a.m.,” finegold said. in that sce- nario, the vote would still count, he said.

felt that with mail you need- ed to be consistent, as long as you put your ballot in as many as 11 states have similar laws, including florida, where every ballot must be counted if the elector dies on or before election and hawa i i wh i ch a ea changed its law, according to the national conference of state legislatures. Many states have stat- utes addressing the issue, and as of two years ago, at least 17 explicitly rejected such ballots, including Massachusetts, ac- cording to the ncsl, which tracks state legislation nation- wide. but while nearly two dozen uVOTERS Continued from Page B1 states have modified their rules to expandmail-in voting during the health crisis, Massachusetts appears to be the only one that amended its law this year to count ballots of those who vote early or absentee but die before election day, according to nc- sl researchers. fact that in 2020 so much about absentee voting has been brought to the fore- front, people are looking at things in detail that they never had reason to look at said Wendy underhill, director of elections for the ncsl. amid the expansion of vot- ing options, election security has consumed national atten- tion as president trump has spent months railing against mail-in voting, claiming that a magnet for widespread fraud.

there has been no evidence that is the case. trump in 2016 also wrongly claimed that that have died 10 years ago are still vot- giving a voice to allega- tions about dead voters casting ballots in droves that are still being batted down this year. in Michigan, for example, election officials said therewere no examples of such fraud after donald trump the presi- eldest son, and Jason Miller, one of the his advisers, tweeted about a breitbart arti- cle headlined re- jects 846 Mailed ballots cause the VoterWas those ballots were rejected because the voters after casting their absentee ballot but before election Michi- secretary of state said, not because they were cast on be- half of dead people. more a policy question than a security un- derhill said of whether to count a deceased ballot that was cast while he or she was alive. well-meaning peo- ple can come up with different in practice, however, dif- ficult, if impossible, to separate a deceased ballot from other ballots once they are pro- cessed, election experts say, cre- ating an administrative chal- lenge that Massachusetts elec- tion officials said was a primary driver for changing the law.

under the expanded voting law, clerks were allowed to be- gin processing ballots as early as nine days before the primary and the general election to help ease the expected flood of mail- in ballots. nearly half of the 1.7 million ballots from the sep- tember primary were cast by mail, for example, andmore are likely coming in november, when secretary of state Wil- liam f. galvin said antici- pating turnout to top the 2016 record of nearly 3.4 million voters. part of that includes pluck- ing mail-in ballots from their envelopes, which have the vot- identifying information, and combining themwith other ballots. the ballots are then sent in bins to the polling places to be counted or are fed into a tabulator or ballot box.

of this commin- gling and tabulating happening prior to election day, there would be no way to retrieve a deceased ballot once it has been advance said debra a spokes- woman for office. that also makes it difficult to determine howmany ballots from deceased voters were counted in the september pri- mary. While local officials re- port to the state the number of ballots they reject because a voter is deceased, they are not required to notify office of ones cast before a person died, but counted afterward. should be a small num- said. even with the relaxed rules, state data show that local clerks still rejected 44 early or absen- tee ballots because the voter was deceased, a similar number to 2018 (when 45 were reject- ed) and less than in 2016 (when there 79.) also a fraction of the nearly 18,000 total ballots rejected in the state primary.

said state officials received any reports or of potential fraud, including a person trying to ille- gally cast a ballot for someone who had died. and that dozens of ballots were rejected under the new rules, she said, is good demonstration of the checks in place to prevent that from in salem, where three de- ceased ballots were re- jected, the residents had in feb- ruary requested absentee bal- lots for this elections before each dying in april. that included a husband and wife who died three days apart, si- mons said. the couple, both in their 80s, had been married for 65 years, according to their obituaries, which said they each died from a but specify if it was coVid-19. but with city hall closed to the public and the office working with limited staff amid the pandemic, the voter records updated before the city fanned out absentee ballots in august for the sept.

1 primary, simons said. it until af- terward that staff became aware they had died and dis- qualified the ballots proactively. not as if someone voted their she said. Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Mass.

will tally absentee ballot even if voter dies before Nov. 3 say you vote at 9 a.m. and you drop dead of a heart attack at 10 a.m. We felt that with mail you needed to be consistent senator barry r. finegold pat staff GOT IT Voltaire, a 2-year-old french bulldog, infiltrated soccer practice for fontbonne academy in Milton, while out for a walk with Jeanne Mcguire of Milton.

he scampered off the field when called. the varsity and junior varsity soccer teams practice in andrews park, in east Milton. soccer started sept. 18 for the school. With the junior varsity coach and assistant varsity coach, the practice is run by head varsity coach paul piotrowicz, who has been with the school for 32 years..