US is said to probe Bay State elections

The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the state's failure to ensure that equipment for disabled voters was provided at polling places across Massachusetts during this year's elections, according to three people who spoke with federal investigators this week.

Two investigators from the voting section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division -- trial lawyer James "Nick" Boeving and special litigation counsel Susana Lorenzo-Giguere -- are to arrive in Boston today to begin gathering documents and conducting interviews, according to one of the two people.

Boeving is planning to inquire about the state's failure to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, which requires that every polling place have at least one machine that allows disabled people to vote privately and independently, said Brenda Wright, managing attorney at the Boston-based National Voting Rights Institute. Wright received a call from a Department of Justice lawyer Tuesday.

Problems with access for disabled voters would be just the latest accusation to plague election officials in Massachusetts, where irregularities in four cities have been investigated in recent years. Boston agreed last year to federal monitoring after the Justice Department accused the city of failing to protect the rights of voters with limited English skills. In September's primary, workers failed to count hundreds of ballots, and in the final election some 30 polling places ran out of ballots.

"The investigating attorney appeared to be looking at the question of whether the state is in compliance with the HAVA requirements," Wright said. "They seemed to be aware of the press reports that have been fairly clear in indicating the state was not going to be in compliance, either in the primary or the general" elections.

Wright said the attorney was looking for people who had monitored polling places across the state on Election Day and that investigators would speak with advocates from voting rights and disability rights organizations. Giovanna Negretti, executive director of the voting advocacy group ¿Oiste?, and another person who asked not to be named said the attorney also appeared to be interested in other election irregularities.

Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

The 2002 Help America Vote Act requires that states provide voting machines that are accessible to the disabled in every polling place by this year's elections. Secretary of State William F. Galvin said in October that Massachusetts would fall short in at least two-thirds of the state's 1,700 polling places.

Galvin said last night that he had not been notified of the federal probe, though he added, "I'm not surprised."

"I'm sure we'll cooperate with them as we always do," Galvin said. "We'll be happy to review with them exactly what we've done."

He said that his office has been testing various types of equipment for disabled voters and that he plans to decide which to purchase in the coming months and have them in polling places by the presidential election in 2008. Galvin said his staff has been meeting with a monitor from the Justice Department who is aware of the state's failure to meet this year's deadline.

Nearly two weeks ago, a coalition of 16 voting and civil rights groups called on Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick to appoint an independent commission to investigate Galvin's oversight of the elections. The coalition, which includes the Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and Common Cause of Massachusetts, charged that disabled and minority voters' rights have been violated repeatedly in recent years in several municipalities, including Boston and Springfield.

"The reality here is that the vast majority of communities in the state were not at all providing the kind of accessibility that is required under HAVA," said John Bonifaz, founder and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, who ran against Galvin in this year's Democratic primary. Bonifaz and others said that responsibility for compliance with federal requirements is Galvin's.

Voting problems in Massachusetts in recent years have resulted not only in the lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice against the City of Boston regarding voters with limited English skills, but also Justice Department probes in Lowell, Lawrence, and Springfield. In September's primary, a recount in a Boston Senate district was triggered by the discovery of uncounted ballots, and, in the final election this month, some 30 Boston polling stations ran out of ballots as crowds were forced to wait.

A Harvard University elections consultant hired by Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that the Boston problems came about in part because the city's Election Department is understaffed, poorly trained, and ill-prepared to make problem-solving decisions to avert crises.

Giving his initial impressions of the Election Department in an interview with the Globe, David King said the department has "no effective mechanism for saying: 'This is priority one. This is priority two.' "

King, who is to issue a report early next year, plans a thorough investigation before making detailed recommendations in March. Still, he said numerous problems are evident.

A four-member Election Commission charged under city law with overseeing the department has not met or exerted any authority for years. There are only three members, and all are employees of the Election Department, a situation that King says makes the commission vulnerable to political pressure.

King also said that "training within the department needs to be dramatically improved."

Election Commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer, in an interview with the Globe yesterday, said the department is doing the best it can with the resources it has. She declined to comment about what happened during this month's election because Galvin's office has launched an investigation of the election.

King began reviewing documents and speaking with election employees last week.

He said task force members reported several concerns aside from ballot shortages during this month's election. They said that on Election Day, roughly 70 special touch-screen voting machines for the disabled did not record votes; that there were no Spanish-speaking workers in at least one East Boston precinct, and that several polling places in Dorchester and Roxbury were not accessible to the handicapped, King said.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.