Lisa Johnson

The 2020 Ballot In Massachusetts

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🗳️Updated 8/21/2020 🗳️

In person early voting starts tomorrow, August 22, in Massachusetts! Ballots can be delivered to a municipal drop box, your local election office, or any early voting site in your community.

Click here for a listing by city and town with election office addresses and drop box locations!

voting on the ballot

Voting By Mail

Everyone in Massachusetts should have already received their Official 2020 Vote by Mail Application, so that you can receive your ballot by mail. That completed application must be received by your local election office by August 26th. If you want to vote by mail, send the application back as soon as possible if you haven’t already. According to city of Quincy website, if you haven’t received an application, you can download it from their website. The application can be printed and mailed back to them or you can scan it and email it to them.

I mailed my completed application to vote by mail for the primary and the general election, but haven’t received my ballot(s) yet. The state primary is coming up quickly and there have been many recent issues with the U.S. Postal Service, so I’m a bit concerned about returning my ballot by mail.

Early Voting Starts This Week

However, we do have early voting in Massachusetts, so hopefully I’ll receive my primary ballot soon.

Early voting by mail begins as soon as the ballots are ready. Early voting in-person for the state primary begins this Saturday, August 22nd and lasts until next Friday, August 28th. Early voting in-person for the state election will be from Saturday, October 17th until Friday, October 30th. The city of Quincy website has some voting tips to know before you go and has a general voter guide with a lot of good information, like the locations for early voting.

You can also track your ballot online to see if and when received. When I look up my ballot, I can see for the presidential primary in March that it was mailed and received on February 28th. I did in-person early voting. The ballot status says accepted. For the state primary, it shows that the ballot was mailed on August 13th and was not returned. As mentioned before, I have not received my ballot yet. Instead of sending it by mail, I may return it in person.

Candidates On The Ballot

Like me, you’ve probably received a lot of mail recently from the candidates. It gets overwhelming. I’m not familiar with many of them, so I want to research and compare. There’s still time to not only compare information on their websites, but to do some additional research on the candidates as well.

I’m in a few Quincy Facebook groups. From comments that I’ve seen, many people seem to feel the same way and want a place where the candidates are listed together for easy research and comparison.

Online you can look at sample ballots for Quincy to see who is on the ballot for the September 1, 2020, state primary election. The City of Quincy website lists the ballots by political party, ward and precinct. The individual sample ballots open by downloading. You can see a list of the primary candidates for the entire state, divided by party, on the website for the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

A lack of organized listings spurs me to action. Needing a list is why I created Free Yoga Boston. So I’ve decided to do something similar here and list the candidates on the ballot, with links to their websites to easily read more about them. Also, I’ve linked to the website for the current office in question.

Since I’m not reading each sample ballot, I’ve looked at the one for where I vote and for my political party.  Only the contested races, those offices with more than one candidate running, are listed. The current office/description is listed next to the name instead of below, as it appears on the sample ballot.

This information will help me become more informed. Hopefully it will help you too. Feel free to share this post and let me know what you think in the comments!

2020 State Primary Candidates – Democratic Candidates For Nomination

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Senator in Congress (Vote For One)

EDWARD J. MARKEY, 7 Townsend St., Malden – United States Senator

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III, 106 Waban Hill Rd., Newton – Representative in Congress

Representative In Congress – Eighth District  (Vote For One)

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, 55 G St., Boston – Candidate for Re-nomination

ROBBIE H. GOLDSTEIN, 346 Congress St., Boston

Register Of Probate – Norfolk County (Vote For One)

COLLEEN MARIE BRIERLEY, 125 Bond St., Norwood

NOEL T. DiBONA, 70 Chickatabot Rd., Quincy – Current Quincy City Councillor at-Large

KATHRYN E. HUBLEY, 44 Marion St., Quincy – Current Quincy City School Committee Member

COURTNEY M. MADDEN, 124 Davis St., Quincy

MICHAEL F. WALSH, 47 Phillips Brooks Rd., Westwood – Current Westwood Selectman

County Commissioner – Norfolk County (Vote For No More Than Two)

JOSEPH P. SHEA, 6 Heritage Rd., Quincy – Candidate for Re-nomination; Former Quincy City Clerk

DENNIS J. GUILFOYLE, 47 Greensboro Rd., Dedham

CHARLES B. RYAN, 24 Conrad St., Braintree – Braintree Town Councillor at-Large

RICHARD R. STAITI, 9 Burns Ave., Canton – Town Moderator; Member, Advisory Board on County Expenditures

County Treasurer – Norfolk County (Vote For One)

MICHAEL G. BELLOTTI, 33 Bayberry Rd., Quincy – Former Norfolk County Sheriff

BRAD L. CROALL, 92 Viden Rd., Quincy

Sheriff  – Norfolk County (To Fill Vacancy) (Vote For One)

JAMES F. COUGHLIN, 36 Netta Rd., Dedham

PATRICK W. McDERMOTT, 55 Dixwell Ave., Quincy – Current Norfolk County Register of Probate

WILLIAM J. PHELAN, 86 Monroe Rd., Quincy – Former Quincy Mayor, Quincy School Committee Member

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*Updated 8/29/2020* Here’s a link to some interviews by the Quincy Democratic City Committee with Quincy candidates.

Massachusetts License Plate MV 1

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Massachusetts License Plate MV 1

If you’re driving around on the roads of New England, you might want to lookout for Massachusetts license plate MV 1.

What is it about us in the Bay State, that makes us obsessed with low number license plates? I’ve never had one, but always notice them and wonder about the owners. These plates are prized family heirlooms passed from one generation to the next.

Well, apparently the generation passing didn’t happen for the MV 1 license plate. Because this past Sunday, some lucky person bought it. The Vineyard Gazette reports that it was purchased via live auction for $46,500.00.

Celebrities are no strangers to the Vineyard and Seth Meyers, who was visiting with family, hosted the Zoom event. He joked that the winner of the plate would still need to make a ferry reservation and that motorists should acknowledge them.

Be sure to say thank you — maybe two polite honks. But this is New England . . . so if they cut you off, feel free to give them the middle finger.

Most of the proceeds go to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, so the money raised will do a lot of good, which I had no idea until now. It’s nice to know that these vanity plates benefit people in need.

So if you play the license plate game, you might want to add a twist and focus on low number plates.

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Image: Possible Dreams 2020

Do You Window Swap?

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window sill

About a week or so ago, I saw a tweet about a website called Window Swap. Have you seen it?

The simplicity is addictive. You see views out the windows of other people. That’s it. But those views let you travel around the world in an instant and catch a glimpse into their lives. Like a short film.

Over the last several days, I looked out about two dozen windows, but didn’t stay on many for long. However, this window pictured above is different. It belongs to Justin in Rochester, New York.

The view is calming. A real moment of zen — with trees gently swaying in the breeze outside, part of a sofa or chair cushion in front of the window sill, with a watering can to the right. The window sill has a vase of colorful fake flowers, a tiny potted evergreen tree with a cat seated in the middle. The cat turns around and looks at you, walks a bit, then turns around and sits again. Music plays in the background and you can hear people talking, the sound of food sizzling, the microwave timer, and dishes clanking.

Above all else, music always grabs me, so the songs cinched it and I decided to blog this scene. Further, I downloaded Shazam so I could find the music. I couldn’t find all the songs, but found four. The music is perfection — all mellow grooves. I wonder what they’re cooking? For a moment you can see slight reflections as they walk around the kitchen.

The scene is on a 10 minute loop, so the same music plays over and over. The cat moves around the same way and the bits of conversation repeat as well. She asks him to write down something they need and then asks him to subtract 88 grams from (the lentils?), then thanks him. What a beautiful simple moment.

It makes me wonder more about this video and these people. What was the day and time? Just a normal day or a special one? I guess I’ll never know. Maybe that’s part of the intrigue. The mystery of the mundane bits and pieces of other people’s lives.

I haven’t closed the scene yet, because as I write I want to capture the feel of it. Once you open a new window, you can’t go back. And I haven’t seen that you can search for a particular place or scene. When I close it, it will be gone.

There’s also a place on the website where you can submit your own window and learn more about the project. It’s in response to the pandemic with everyone being stuck at home. This is a way for us to travel.

Below are songs from Justin’s window. Hope you enjoy them as well. Lifted by DAO is my new favorite song that I have on repeat!

Playlist – Justin’s Window

El Camino – Ganzo

lōland – taiyō

The Calm – DAO

Lifted – DAO

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Image: WindowSwap