Assistant Town Administrator Michelle Monsegur provided the following COVID-19 updates at the Board of Selectmen meeting on August 25, 2020.
COVID-19 Cases
Massachusetts remains in Phase 3 - Step 1 at this time. Public health indicators in Massachusetts continue to hold steady.
As of today, DPH is reporting 116,770 confirmed cases in Massachusetts, of which 8,975 are in Plymouth County.
As of last Wednesday, DPH was reporting 294 COVID-19 cases in Hingham, an increase of 5 cases from last week, which puts us in the Green (lower risk) category.
Early Voting
Reminder that in-person early voting is taking place in the second floor meeting room at Town Hall this week during normal Town Hall business hours, which are as follows for the rest of the week:
- Wednesday, August 26 – 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
- Thursday, August 27 – 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
- Friday, August 28 – 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Town Hall is open only for early voting this week – Town Hall offices are closed and staff are working remotely.
You can also vote in-person on the day of the state primary election, which is next Tuesday, September 1. Polling places will be open from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM that day. Polling places are as follows:
- Precincts 1 through 4: High School, 17 Union Street
- Precincts 5 and 6: Middle School, 1103 Main Street
- Precinct 5A: Linden Ponds, 201 Linden Ponds Way, Willard Square
For both early voting and voting on September 1, we are taking COVID-19 precautions with respect to social distancing and keeping polling areas clean and safe, and we are asking everyone to wear a mask when entering the voting areas.
Many residents have chosen to vote by mail instead of voting in person to minimize risk of COVID-19. The Clerk’s office has processed 5,500 mail-in ballot applications so far. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is tomorrow, August 26, and there is a link to that application on the Town Clerk’s website. Anyone wishing to still request a mail-in ballot can fill out that application and drop it in the dropbox at the end of the Town Hall driveway to make sure it gets in before tomorrow’s deadline.
In terms of returning your mail-in ballots themselves, Secretary of State William Galvin has encouraged voters to hand deliver their mail-in ballots if possible. If you would like to hand deliver your mail-in-ballots to Town Hall, you can put it in that same dropbox at the end of the Town Hall driveway. The deadline to return mail-in-ballots for the state primary election is September 1, 2020.
There has been an issue where voters who are registered as “Unenrolled” requested mail-in ballots but did not designate which party’s ballot they wished to receive, and therefore did not receive a mail-in ballot for the state primary election next week. If you are in this situation, you can still vote in person this week or next Tuesday, or you can contact the Town Clerk’s office at townclerk@hingham-ma.gov or 781-741-1410. Unenrolled voters in this situation will still receive a mail-in ballot for the presidential election in November.