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EDITORIAL

Massachusetts Democrats support democracy, right? Right?

Suspicions rise about whether the Massachusetts House of Representatives will scuttle same-day voter registration.

Volunteers prepare ballots and voting materials at Pittsfield City Hall on Oct. 9, 2020.Ben Garver/Associated Press

The partisan dysfunction that rules over Washington today means states that truly care about voting rights are on their own.

So in Massachusetts, where Democrats have a supermajority in the Legislature, passing a permanent voting rights bill that would extend a host of reforms enacted during the pandemic should be a no-brainer, right?

Well, not necessarily. It depends on one’s definition of “reform.”

The House is scheduled to take up a voting reform package Thursday — more than four months after the Senate passed its landmark voting bill, Oct. 6. Meanwhile all of those temporary reforms aimed at keeping voters safe — things like extended early voting and no-excuse absentee voting — were allowed to expire on Dec. 15, the House apparently being in no great rush to craft its version of a bill.

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But as of Monday, no one — not even the secretary of state’s office, which is in charge of elections — has seen the House version of the bill, which isn’t scheduled to be made public until Wednesday, when it will be released by the House Ways and Means Committee, where it has lingered since October.

The House Ways and Means chairman, Aaron Michlewitz, said Monday the committee was still “working through” the bill.

But Secretary of State Bill Galvin insisted, “I’m happy they’re finally doing it, but I’m suspicious that they don’t want to show us the text.”

The suspicion is that the House, which has long opposed election-day voter registration, will leave that provision of the Senate bill on the cutting room floor.

“This is no way to do legislation,” Galvin told the Globe editorial board. “It’s certainly not the right way to do a bill of this kind.”

Of course, any change in the bill from the Senate version would set the stage for a legislative conference committee to iron out those differences. But dropping the same-day voter registration provisions adopted by the Senate is no small matter. A dispute of that magnitude would mean a protracted negotiation, and that would mean that town elections, like the one scheduled in Wellesley on March 1, might have to operate under the old set of rules.

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The Senate bill made permanent early voting (two weeks for general elections and one week for primary elections); no-excuse mail-in voting, requiring the secretary of state to mail out ballot applications to all registered voters; and enhanced accommodations for voters with disabilities.

It also allows expanded use of secure drop boxes for mail-in ballots and would allow election officials to pre-process mail-in and early voting ballots in advance of election day. The latter would help ease the snags that plagued Boston’s preliminary election.

A lot of reforms long overdue here in Massachusetts when they were temporarily adopted in 2020 are likely to be part of the House bill.

The Senate bill also included same-day voter registration, allowing voters to register on early voting days and on election day. Some 20 other states and the District of Columbia have same-day registration.

But it’s also a provision that has made the House somewhat squeamish — especially those members who have large numbers of college students in their districts. The notion that students could move into their dorms or apartments over Labor Day weekend and show up to the polls possibly the next day to register (if this year’s primary is eventually set for Sept. 6) gives some reps the vapors.

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Again, leading to well-grounded suspicions that the House bill will exclude that provision.

And that would be unfortunate.

This is a real opportunity to get voting rights done right in Massachusetts — something that certainly isn’t going to happen at the national level. The national Freedom to Vote Act — now sadly consigned to the long list of unfinished congressional business — did include same-day registration.

It is also critical that Massachusetts lawmakers find a way to get this done quickly, so that town elections this spring can continue to benefit from expanded voting access, and that candidates and voters alike know what the rules are well ahead of this September’s primary election for state offices.

In a state whose leaders once helped shape the foundational principles of this democracy, there should be no room for halfhearted measures for, or delay on, voting reform.


Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.