League of Woman Voters of Northampton Area

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MA Election Coalition Report, 2020 Election

 For Immediate Release: Thursday, November 12th 

Contact: Patricia Comfort, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts pcomfort@lwvma.org, 857-452-1715 

Massachusetts Elections Were a Success — Advocates Applaud Election Officials 

Boston – In the midst of a global pandemic, voters in Massachusetts set a record for the highest turnout election cycle in history, and they were able to do so in a safe, secure, and accessible election. The Election Modernization Coalition thanks and applauds legislators and election officials across the Commonwealth for working tirelessly to ensure that Bay Staters could make their voice heard. 

As of today, approximately 3.46 million individuals, or about 72% of registered voters, cast ballots for the November 3 General Election Of those, approximately 41% cast ballots through the mail or secure dropboxes, 28% voted early in-person, and 31% voted in-person on election day. 

Voter registration numbers were also up. Since February 2019, Massachusetts has added 377,975 new voters, an increase of nearly 10%. The fact that so many new voters participated in our democracy – during a time when nationwide voter registration rates were down due to COVID-19 – demonstrates that common sense reforms like online voter registration and a 10-day instead of 20-day deadline to register before the election have a critical and clear impact in ensuring our elections are more participatory. 

These numbers reflect keen interest in our elections, but they are also evidence that the temporary reforms passed this summer – vote by mail, extended early voting, and more – worked. Nearly 70% of voters took advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail or vote early. Not only did this allow Bay Staters who might otherwise not have been able to participate to vote, but it had a clear impact on election day itself, according to the nonpartisan Election Protection program. The Election Protection hotline usually records dozens of reports of long lines at the polls, but heard virtually no such complaints November 3. Election Protection volunteers instead reported conditions that were clearly COVID-safe: minimal lines or wait times and ample social distancing. 

These reforms – vote by mail, early voting, early processing of ballots, poll worker flexibility and more – were especially necessary during a pandemic. But the pandemic is nowhere near over. With spring municipal elections only months away, it is clear that these reforms must not only be 

extended but made permanent. They reduce barriers to and bolster voter participation, and they are now tried-and-true in the Commonwealth. We urge the Legislature, Secretary of Commonwealth, and Governor to act quickly in the next session to make these reforms permanent. 

The Election Protection program recruited and trained over 2,000 on-the-ground volunteers this year. The Massachusetts Voter Table led phone and text banks. Both programs report that voters were enthused about vote by mail and early voting, and that our elections went off largely without a hitch, but there were some clear issues on Election Day. One stood out in particular. The Election Protection hotline fielded dozens of calls from would-be voters who were unable to participate because their voter registration was out of date. These voters overwhelmingly had thought they had updated their registration, but arrived at the polls to find that they were not on the rolls. Twenty-one other states have Same Day Registration for this reason; it is a clear reform that ensures no would-be voter is disenfranchised because of issues with their registration. That Massachusetts still does not offer Same Day Voter Registration is a glaring inadequacy. The Election Modernization Coalition looks forward to correcting it in the next legislative session. 

Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting

June 3

5:30 – 7:45 pm

Florence Civic Center

Guest Speaker: Marie Gauthier, co-president of LWVMA

Letter to the editor 4/5/25

Single-payer health care just needs vote,Dr. Shelley Berkowitz, Gazette, April 5, 2025

I appreciate Gazette reporter Emilee Klein’s March 30 article for shining a light on the health care crisis for municipalities in Massachusetts [“‘Budget buster:’ Spiking health insurance costs burdening local municipal budgets”]. Despite the myriad current horrors in the U.S. due to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, this is one horror that does not need to continue, and does have an actionable solution without resorting to forcing individuals or municipalities to make untenable and inequitable choices such as negotiating with unions to opt out of health care insurance — a “Sophie’s Choice.”

The U.S. is just about the only developed country in the world that does not have a public, national single- payer health care system. It is also the only country in the world where medical bankruptcies actually exist. In the U.S., we pay the highest cost per person for health care, with much worse health outcomes than in countries that spend far less.

The reason is simple: It’s because our corporate health care system exists with the primary goal of earning profit for insurance companies, rather than providing actual health care. Health care insurance companies siphon off almost onethird of our health care dollars with their bloated administration costs and profit — money that could be instead available for actual health care. The good news is that, at least in Massachusetts, there is a solution!

There is a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature (that does not have to rely on the feds) which if passed has the practical and financial infrastructure to finally provide comprehensive health care to all Massachusetts residents regardless of employment status, with no copays, deductibles or “cost sharing,” no “preexisting conditions,” and no “prior authorizations.” It is funded by a payroll tax (which costs less than the premiums and other fees paid currently to the private companies).

It would include all prescribed medications, eye care, dental care, skilled nursing facility and hospice care, and allow each person to choose any Massachusetts medical provider without limiting “networks.” It would eliminate the terrible primary care shortage in Massachusetts (particularly western Massachusetts), which is caused by physician burnout due to the timeconsuming and unethical administrative requirements placed on physicians by these insurance companies to delay and limit needed medical care to maximize their profits. It would not affect the VA health care system.

I am a primary care physician who has experienced this firsthand. All other current legislative health care bills, even those purporting to help the primary care crisis, are corporate endorsed and supported bills that are merely Band-Aids to try and prop up a dying and unsustainablesystem. The reason the Massachusetts Medicare 4all bill (SD.2341/HD.1228) has failed to pass for many years in our Legislature is the well- funded lobbying by insurance companies and Big Pharma and their stakeholders (currently, Massachusetts Medical Association administration advocates only for private, mainly managed care “solutions” that are not representative of the views of their individual member physicians who support a single-payer system in Massachusetts).

In our 2024 Massachusetts election, Ballot Question 6, a nonbinding referendum question to gauge support for the single-payer bill in Massachusetts, passed in each of the 11 state districts where it was on the ballot, including districts where Donlad Trump won — documenting that support for single-payer in Massachusetts is a bipartisan issue.

The city of Northampton alone would save $7 million each year on employee health care, money that could then be available for other sorely needed essential services.

Health care is a human right, and one we don’t need to go bankrupt over to achieve. The majority of our local legislators are cosponsors and supporters of this bill; Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa is the lead House co-sponsor. The time has come. We can no longer afford not to! Please urge your representative or state senator to sign on as a co-sponsor, if he or she has not already, and thank them if they already are a co-sponsor.

Dr. Shelly Berkowitz is a (mostly retired) family physician who lives in Northampton, ran a solo family practice for many years, and currently works at the VA in Leeds. She is a member of masscare.org.

Letter to the editor, Gazette, 2/28/24 ‘Take steps to address state’s homeless crisis’ by Sharon Farmer

According to HUD’s December 2023 Annual Homelessness Report, Massachusetts now has the 10th highest proportion of homeless people in the U.S., and our proportion of homeless families with children puts us at the very top of the list. We reached this crisis because we have a shortage of housing stock, which has led to skyrocketing housing costs.

The construction slowdown that came in the wake of the 2008-09 recession is partially to blame — but so are the zoning laws of a vast number of Massachusetts communities, which restrict all, or most, residential land to single-family housing on lots of a specific size. sometimes as large as two acres.

As the residents of Hatfield observe [“Town focusing on future priorities,” Gazette, Feb. 12], we’ve zoned ourselves into a situation where our own children can’t afford to live nearby, and where essential low-wage workers end up in homeless shelters. To address the immediate homeless crisis, tell your state representative to allocate $120 million for temporary homeless shelters, and tell your U.S. congressional representative to support the Senate’s proposed allocations for the homeless.

To address the shortage of housing stock in the Pioneer Valley, check your town zoning laws to see if they should be updated to allow for more housing stock, and urge your town council 1) to partner with a nonprofit developer of affordable housing, and 2) to create and fund an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Sharon Farmer is a member of the Northampton Area LWV Homelessness and Affordable Housing subcommittee.

Town Hall on the Federal Judiciary

WHAT: TOWN HALL on the FEDERAL JUDICIARY 

WHEN: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 

7 pm ET 

WHERE: Online via Microsoft Teams SAVE THIS LINK!

To ensure League members are as prepared as possible, LWVMA has arranged a Town Hall meeting with leading experts, including Alicia Bannon of the Brennan Center, Thomas Berry of the CATO Institute, and Errin Martin ofNVG LLC. Followed by time for Q&A. The Town Hall will allow League members to learn more about the Federal Judiciary and pose questions to the speakers.

Please note that this is a direct link to the event that will be hosted on Microsoft Teams. You may want to create a calendar invitation with this link for future use. If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Teams, instructions on how to join the meeting are also available.