VedaDalsette posted at 7:19PM Tue, 23 June 2020 - #4392917

EClark1894, actually absentee ballots due to covid is very recent. Absence, physical disability, and religious belief (I don't qualify for any of those), yes, they've always been available in Mass. but not for fear of covid until this month. It's been very easy for me to vote, because my polling station is walking distance and never crowded (every pre-covid polling station should have been like this, too, but, unfortunately, U.S. voter suppression is very real). I'm hoping mail-in voting will become permanent. More people will vote then!

Yeah, I believe I said that it wasn't a concern before the pandemic. Physical disability is a broad but vague term. You could have been sick, pregnant and about to deliver, stubbed a toe and couldn't walk, etc. You needed to have an excuse. With covid, they don't want a bunch of people gathering together but unable to practice social distancing, so I'm all for mail-in ballots.