Items of Interest

Report from Massachusetts by our own, Lisa DeWitt:

As a judicial candidate, I receive a myriad of emails each day concerning Republican and community meeting and events.  One of those was very different.  It was from Jonathan Neerman.  The subject line: Urgent Attorney Help Needed in Mass. Senate Race.  I opened it to learn that the Scott Brown Campaign would deploy lawyers to help with ballot security in key precincts.  I volunteered to serve and began a journey of excitement and enlightenment.

From the time of the initial email on Thursday, January 14, there was a steady stream of confirmations, updates and training materials.  We received the Memorandum to Local Election Officials issued by William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  It contained an overview of the election process and laws.  On Monday evening, we arrived in Boston and received our Election Day credentials.  Next, we were briefed in a conference call about our assignments.  The Lawyers for Scott Brown Election Day Operation had two stated goals: Assure that every vote is counted and that no voter is disenfranchised by error or fraud.

My initial assignment was to a roving legal team: Boston 5.  On the morning of the election, I was assigned to be Scott Brown’s designated observer at the Ward 15, Precinct 1 polling place located in the East Zone Early Learning Center on Boston’s south side.  I arrived in the dark to find an illegally placed Martha Coakley sign.  My challenge of the electioneering went unheard by the Warden, the presiding election official.  Ultimately, it was the police officer assigned to the polling location who removed the sign.  All over, similar challenges to illegal practices were made and for the first time in the state’s history, the electioneering law was enforced.

The roving legal teams were dispatched to many instances of fraud to gather and document evidence.  In one instance, a ballot marked for Scott Brown was intentionally withheld from the ballot box by election officials and later spoiled after being found in a secrecy sleeve.  Affidavits were drafted at the legal team headquarters and videographers were available to interview witnesses for any later recounts or court challenge.