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Board sets Aug. 30 for advance counting and approves Worcester Police presence at polls
Summary
The Worcester Board of Election Commissioners set advance removal and counting for Aug. 30 and approved use of Worcester Police Department officers at early‑voting sessions and polling locations for the Sept. 2 preliminary and general election operations.
At the June 10 meeting the Worcester Board of Election Commissioners set the advance removal and counting of mail‑in and early in‑person ballots for Sunday, Aug. 30, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and approved coordination with the Worcester Police Department to assign officers to early‑voting sessions and polling locations, including spare officers for traffic enforcement and operational support on Election Day.
Elections staff asked the board to approve centralized advanced processing of ballots returned during the vote‑by‑mail period and early‑voting ballots. Staff recommended a central tabulation location in the Levi Lincoln Chamber for the advance removal and counting and requested board approval to bring in poll workers for that process. "We recommend to the commissioners that we approve advanced removal and counting of mail in ballots at a central tabulation location," an elections staff member said.
Staff also noted contingency procedures: if relatively few vote‑by‑mail ballots are returned, staff may instead process them at precincts on election day rather than conduct early tabulation at the central location. "If we don't get back very many, we won't do early vote tabulation here," the staff member said.
On security, staff requested that the board authorize working with the Worcester Police Department to assign officers to early voting sessions and polling locations and to provide spare officers for traffic enforcement and other support on Election Day. The board approved that request; the transcript records affirmative votes from Commissioners Gonzalez and Sacco.
The advance tabulation date was set to ensure staff and poll workers are scheduled in advance and to provide time for vendor coordination; staff noted the date falls the day before the Sept. 2 preliminary and acknowledged it follows the Labor Day weekend but said previous years did not produce staffing problems.
The board did not specify a final roll‑call tally in the transcript for the advance counting vote; staff and commissioners proceeded with scheduling and related logistics after the approvals.
