A Suffolk University professor who studies voting rights and political participation says Kari MacRae’s lawsuits challenging a state Senate primary are unlikely to succeed, but the popularity of mail-in voting could be a factor in challenges of this kind.
State law requires election officials to compare the signatures on ballot envelopes against signatures on ballot applications. The more mail-in ballots, the more work it takes to verify them.
MacRae, who lost the Republican primary to state Rep. Mathew Muratore in the Plymouth and Barnstable District, is suing officials in six of the Senate district’s eight towns, alleging they failed to verify the signatures.
Rachael Cobb, an associate professor of political science at Suffolk, said it’s unlikely a judge would invalidate election results certified by the secretary of state — as these were — unless a major problem were uncovered.
“In general, elections are not rerun; that's number one,” she said. “And number two, if they are rerun… there has to be a massive problem found with how the election was administered.”
After a recount, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office posted results showing Muratore won by 39 votes.
Voting by mail has become very popular since the pandemic. The 2024 state primary set a new record for mail-in votes in Massachusetts, with 62 percent of votes cast by mail statewide.
MacRae, who lives in Bourne, said even if the election outcome stands, her experience points to a problem.
“Anybody should be concerned that the process is being [done] the way it's written in the law,” she said. “And that's really what it comes down to. And I don't think that the clerks have the resources that they need in order to do that.”
Her lawsuits name as defendants the town clerks and boards of registrars in Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, Plymouth, Plympton, and Sandwich, along with Galvin.
The clerks have declined to comment on the lawsuits or did not return calls seeking comment.
The proportion of mail-in ballots could be a factor in a case like this, Cobb said.
“If everybody voted by mail, and nobody checks, and there's a huge problem, then that's a problem,” she said. “But it is unlikely that a judge would go against the secretary of state's judgment on this.”
She said that in general, candidates and voters tend to trust election results when they win and be more skeptical of the outcome when they lose.
