City Clerk Janet Rowe said that the process of sending out absentee ballots to voters for the Sept. 14 election will begin next week.
The high number of requests that the Election Department has received for absentee ballot applications is an indicator of the significant interest in the highly contested race for mayor, with three candidates, City Council President Darren P. Cyr, and School Committee members Jared Nicholson and Michael Satterwhite, contending for the top two spots that would qualify them for the Nov. 2 final election ballot. One of the three candidates will be eliminated from the race for mayor on Sept. 14.
ballot drop box that will be situated outside City Hall.
“The applications are flying in,” reports Rowe. “I think the mayor’s race is definitely a factor. We’ve also had a lot of college students putting in applications for absentee ballots.”
Rowe also attributes the high number of absentee ballots to the fact that voters “really like doing the mail-in voting.”
Rowe reasoned that the growing concern about COVID-19 variants is another factor in voters wanting to mail in their ballots, as opposed to going to the polls.
“We’re still going to have the same health precautions for the election at the polling locations,” said Rowe. “We’ll be using the screens and asking people to wear masks. Right now, you have to wear a mask to go into the schools and all public buildings, so as of today, you would have to wear a mask to come in to vote.”
Rowe said the Election Department has received a new ballot drop box that will be situated outside Lynn City Hall. “It’s a brand-new voting box that we obtained with grant funds. The box is red, white, and blue – it looks beautiful.”
With the election less than a month way, the race to succeed Mayor Thomas McGee in the corner office is heating up. McGee announced in March that he would not be seeking re-election to the post.
Lynn residents will continue to see a lot of candidates Cyr, Nicholson, and Satterwhite, who have been out knocking on doors and working hard to get their message out to voters during a hot summer that had a heat wave last week.
Now more than ever in challenging times, residents are looking to their city officials for leadership. McGee provided exceptional leadership during the unprecedented COVID-19 health crisis, and three very capable candidates press forward with the hope of holding the prestigious honor of being mayor of Lynn, an increasingly vibrant community that saw a significant growth (more than 10,000 new residents) in population, according to the 2020 census results.