Election night, November 7, 2006

Voting rights leader John Bonifaz, founder of the National Voting Rights Institute and former Democratic candidate for Secretary of the Commonwealth, has issued the following statement on the ballot problems in Boston:

“The right to vote has suffered another serious blow tonight with the news that polling locations in Boston’s Mattapan, Roxbury and Hyde Park neighborhoods ran out of ballots two hours before the polls were scheduled to close.

“Many of the voters in these neighborhoods have faced repeated problems at the polls over the years – some have been completely disenfranchised in the past. Tonight, as they returned from work they were faced with a new obstacle. Many had to choose between waiting unspecified amounts of time for ballots to be delivered or leaving the polling location having been deprived of their right to vote.

“Tonight, we are seeing potentially record turnout in Massachusetts and across the nation. Nothing serves to reduce this number in future elections more than the problems we have seen today.

“This is a clear signal that we must remain vigilant in safeguarding our elections and that we must continue to fight for the rights of all voters to cast a ballot free of any barriers.”