Hub's ballot practice illegal, Galvin says

Boston's longstanding election policy of stocking polling places with only enough ballots for half the registered voters violates state law, Secretary of State William F. Galvin said yesterday in a letter lambasting the city for its handling of Tuesday's election.

Last week, the state provided Boston officials with 405,950 ballots, enough for every registered voter in the city. But the Election Commission, in keeping with its standard practice in recent years, delivered just half of the ballots to polling places, storing the remainder at City Hall to be sent to polling places later if needed.

City officials defended the policy this week, even while acknowledging that it was the main reason that some 30 polling places ran out of ballots Tuesday evening, forcing crowds of angry voters to wait while replacement ballots were rushed to the polling stations in police cruisers.

In his letter yesterday to Boston elections chief Geraldine Cuddyer, Galvin said state law requires that every polling place have enough ballots to provide one for each registered voter.

Galvin said his office would launch "an immediate investigation into the practices and procedures of the Boston Elections Department" and sharply criticized the city for "egregious problems" during the election.

"Voters were subjected to inordinate and needless delays in exercising their franchise, and some voters may have left without voting," Galvin wrote. "This is absolutely unacceptable and violative of the most fundamental principles of our democratic process."

The city's ballot distribution policy has been in place since 2003, when the city replaced pull-lever voting machines with optical scanners that read paper ballots. City officials said this week that the practice saves time and effort, since fewer ballots have to be transported to polling places and stored. Since turnout has been low in past elections, the officials said, there has been little reason to change the policy.

Yesterday, Jennifer Mehigan, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, declined to comment on the specifics of Galvin's letter.

"We will cooperate fully with the secretary of state in any investigation," Mehigan said.

Depending on what his office finds in the investigation, Galvin could order Boston's Election Department to institute changes, mandate training, or take other steps, such as getting rid of underqualified personnel. He can enlist the state's attorney general to enforce his decrees.

"I think the City of Boston will be hard pressed to defend its policy, especially in light of the statute that mandates they provide ballots to 100 percent of the voting public," said Burton Nadler, a lawyer specializing in election law for the past 26 years in Massachusetts.

Galvin said earlier this week that he would take control of Boston's Election Department, a move that could take several forms, including the involvement of a court-appointed receiver who would run the department on Galvin's behalf. Paul Lazour, special counsel to the secretary of state, declined to speculate on that yesterday.

"It's not appropriate to get into hypotheticals," he said. "Right now, the secretary has initiated an investigation, and he's going to be consulting with the city of Boston and will be making a determination on what should be done in these circumstances. But it allows the secretary to seek any enforcement in court if necessary."

Some community groups, meanwhile, have expressed reservations about the secretary of state's plan to seize control of the Boston Election Department, charging that Galvin has ignored complaints by Asian-American and Hispanic voters in recent years, not just in Boston, but also in Springfield, Chelsea, Lowell, and Worcester.

"We want to make sure anything the secretary of state does involves the community and helps more than it hurts," said Avi Green, executive director of MassVOTE.

Galvin said that he would notify the city later of who will conduct the investigation.

Menino, in a separate move, said he is planning to hire an election consultant next week to review election management in the city.

The ballot problems cap years of election mistakes by Boston's Election Department, which last year agreed to federal oversight after a US Justice Department lawsuit alleged coercion and other problems involving services for voters who do not speak English.

"There needs to be a greater confidence instilled in the public that our elections are going to be run in a free and fair manner and that people who show up at the polls are going to have their basic rights protected," said John Bonifaz, a voting rights lawyer who ran against Galvin in the Democratic primary.

"It involves better management, and people who could enforce those policies."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.