THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2021 Page 17 BHRC | FROM PAGE 14 FRANK’S Housepainting (781) 289-0698 • Exterior • Ceiling Dr. • Power Wash • Paper Removal • Carpentry FREE ESTIMATES — Fully Insured “Proper prep makes all the difference” – F. Ferrera • Interior stop the proceedings if he or she disagrees with anything. Any representative who was against the voting by mail extension or any other part of the bill could have objected to taking up the measure and postpone its consideration until a formal session when there could be a roll call vote. But no one did. Although no legislators spoke against the extension or the entire bill on the fl oor, there were critics following the House vote. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance said that “important policies that fundamentally change the way Massachusetts holds elections should go through the scrutiny of the normal legislative vetting process and not be bundled into an unrelated bill with little public transparency.” “Even without the pandemic related vote by mail program, the regular law in place allows any voter who cannot vote in person on Election Day to request an absentee ballot and vote,” added the group’s spokesman Paul Craney. “Massachusetts also continues to have several weeks of early voting available. There’s simply no reason to put potentially millions of ballots in the mail, expanding room for error. As the Legislature continues to keep the Statehouse locked down and play games with the process to change the way elections are held, they will continue to erode trust in our election system.” “Rather than make the Democrats come in and actually have to vote on this legislation, [GOP House Minority Leader] Rep. Brad Jones, as he has done time and time again, stood by and did nothing,” said Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons. “The GOP has to stand up and be an effective opposition party. Anyone with even minor concerns about mail-in voting should be outraged by this maneuver. Election integrity is one of the most important issues in America right now and based upon our experience with Boston election offi cials massively undercounting votes in 2020; our concerns are 100 percent valid.” “Chairman Lyons seems to have forgotten or been distracted by the referral of his campaign fi nance activities to the attorney general for investigation to recognize that on June 10, the entire House Republican Caucus voted unanimously to oppose an amendment to make mail-in voting permanent in Massachusetts,” responded Rep. Jones. “Introducing such a signifi cant change to our election laws will have far-reaching implications and therefore deserves to be vigorously debated and vetted by the House and Senate. The fi nal language contained in the supplemental budget is very narrow in scope and simply responds to concerns raised by multiple communities to provide for a temporary extension through December 15 so they can have more fl exibility in conducting municipal elections this fall on the same basis as communities with elections on June 30 or prior.” (A “Yes” vote is for the bill.) Sen. Brendan Crighton Yes HOW LONG WAS LAST WEEK’S SESSION? Beacon Hill Roll Call tracks the length of time that the House and Senate were in session each week. Many legislators say that legislative sessions are only one aspect of the Legislature’s job and that a lot of important work is done outside of the House and Senate chambers. They note that their jobs also involve committee work, research, constituent work and other matters that are important to their districts. Critics say that the Legislature does not meet regularly or long enough to debate and vote in public view on the thousands of pieces of legislation that have been fi led. They note that the infrequency and brief length of sessions are misguided and lead to irresponsible latenight sessions and a mad rush to act on dozens of bills in the days immediately preceding the end of an annual session. During the week of July 19-23, the House met for a total of nine hours and 58 minutes while the Senate met for a total of one hour and ten minutes. Mon. July 19 House 11:04 a.m. to 11:28 a.m. Senate 11:10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Tues. July 20 No House session No Senate session Wed. July 21 House 11:01 a.m. to 1:13 p.m. Senate 12:12 p.m. to 1:14 p.m. Thurs. July 22 House 11:00 a.m. to 6:22 p.m. Senate 12:19 p.m. to 12:22 p.m. Fri. July 23 No House session No Senate session Bob Katzen welcomes feedback at bob@beaconhillrollcall. n
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