Letter to Secretary of State William Galvin

Letter to Secretary of State William Galvin

October 2, 2023

Mr. William Francis Galvin

Secretary of The Commonwealth of Mass.

One Ashburton Place

Boston, MA 02108

Dear Secretary Mr. Galvin:

As you were aware, the last Primary Elections in the City of Lawrence on September 19, 2023, left some candidates with a bad taste in their mouth, and without answers to a lot of questions.

Were the mistakes that took place throughout the whole process negligence on the part of the Election Department, or were these mistakes made intentionally to help another candidate? How do things like this happen in a City like Lawrence, MA?

Candidate for District F, Germinudis Rosario (first time running for a City Council seat) was disqualified from having her name on the ballot for the Primary Election because her candidacy papers were notarized but not signed by the candidate. Ms. Rosario submitted her signatures on May 9th, 2023, and even though she had enough signatures, she decided to submit additional names (signatures) on July 31st. The Election Department qualified 69 signatures even though she needed only 50, the Election Department told Ms. Rosario that she was all set.

At this point, I would like to say that the Election Department was negligent in accepting the signatures papers, without the candidate’s signature twice.

Two weeks later, on August 17, 2023, while visiting City Hall, Ms. Rosario was told, at approximately 4:30 pm, that her signatures were being challenged by the current City Councilor. Please be aware that August 17 was the last day to submit candidate signatures. There are several questions:

How and when did the current City Councilor become aware of the missing signature?
When was the challenge submitted and was it done in writing?
When was the challenge entered and why Ms. Rosario was not informed on time of this challenge?
Why wasn’t Ms. Rosario allowed to correct the problem?

To make matters worse, Ms. Rosario decided to run on stickers, and after the results of the election were made public, Ms. Rosario came third. (There were 3 candidates running for the same seat in District F). She was certain that she received far more write-ins and decided to request a recount.

After the recount was completed, Ms. Rosario came second; she received an additional 22 votes. This was an increase of 53%. According to the Election Department, several write-ins were placed in envelopes but were not counted. Why? Too much of a coincidence? You bet. Too many mistakes were made that affected the candidacy of Ms. Rosario.

How many other candidates were also affected but are not aware of what is going on? Like me, although I did not ask for a recount, at this moment I think that my votes were not counted adequately. It is very sad to see that still Lawrencians cannot trust our Election Department.

I am asking the Secretary of State, Mr. Galvin, to conduct an investigation and determine whether all these errors and mistakes were the result of negligence or a misdeed. The City of Lawrence deserves to have clear and transparent elections.

Sincerely

Ana Levy, City Councilor At Large

Candidate for Reelection