New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
New Bedford voters in Ward 1, Precinct D, expressed frustration and concern when they discovered that their polling location at Vibra Hospital did not have Republican ballots available in the early morning of Super Tuesday. Reports indicated that while Democrat and Libertarian ballots were present, there were no Republican ballots for voters to use.
This morning, the New Bedford city election department was notified that Republican ballots were missing from the polling materials for 1D – Vibra Hospital.#mapoli #MassGOP #ElectionIntegrity
— MassGOP (@massgop) March 5, 2024
Joanne Hodgson, candidate for the Republican State Committee, told WBSM on Tuesday morning,
“Apparently when packing the supply boxes, they missed the Republican ballots. The City election department was made aware of the issue by the warden at 7:15 (a.m.), and were able to rectify it by 7:40, as this precinct is on the other side of the city. Despite having received specific training to count all ballots prior to opening and contacting the election office with any issues, the warden in Ward 1 failed to do that.”
Once the issue was resolved, The Massachusetts GOP took to Twitter noting, “It is unacceptable for any precincts to not have Republican Ballots. Such failures only deepen the distrust between Republican voters and election authorities. Thank you RSC Member Jo-Anne Hodgson for her work to rectify the issue.”
Although the issue has since been fixed, this is not the start to the election season that we hoped for. Needless to mention, there has been rigorous debate the past 4 years over whether there was election interference and voter fraud in the 2020 election. Hiccups like what happened today in New Bedford will just be adding fuel to the already blazing fire.
