TOM BRADY FOUND himself at the center of a storm over his possible vote for his friend Donald Trump for president. But it turns out his ballot may not even be counted.
Trump announced at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Monday night that the star New England Patriots quarterback called him and said he voted for the Republican nominee — and gave Trump permission to share the news publicly.
Municipal officials confirmed yesterday to the Boston Globe that Brady showed up on Monday and cast an absentee ballot at town hall in Brookline, the pricey suburb where he recently built a 14,000-square-foot multimillion-dollar manse with his supermodel wife, Gisele Bündchen.
But when Brady appeared at town hall, officials told him there was no record he was registered to vote, according to Brookline town clerk Pat Ward.
Ward said he told Brady he could cast a provisional ballot, but that it may not be counted. Ward said town officials have 10 days to determine whether an administrative error was somehow responsible for there being no record of Brady’s registration. If they find evidence there was an error by town officials, the vote will be counted. Otherwise, it will not.
“He understood and he was fine with that,” said Ward.
Ward said Brady, who moved to Brookline two years ago, told him his registration had been sent in before last month’s deadline.
“We haven’t found it yet,” said Ward.
Brady would not address the question of whether he supported Trump at his weekly press availability on Wednesday. He also refused to comment when asked whether he had, in fact, given Trump permission to announce his vote.
While Brady has resisted efforts to get him talk about his voting preferences, for most elections he would have an easy out if pressed on whom he cast a ballot for: No one.
Brady may be famously disciplined when it comes to the workouts that keep him in top physical form at age 39, but he is something of a slacker when it comes to exercising the franchise.
He has voted only four times in the 10-year period from 2004 to 2014, according to public voter information gathered by Novus Group, a Boston polling and political consulting firm. Before moving to Brookline, Brady cast a ballot in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections and in two elections in 2013, when a special election took place to fill a vacant US Senate seat.
But he cast no votes in the 2004 or 2008 presidential primaries, or in either the presidential primary or general election in 2012, or in the 2006 and 2010 contests for governor.
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Executive Editor, CommonWealth
About Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in early 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His cover story in CommonWealth's Fall 1999 issue on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Michael got his start in journalism at the Dorchester Community News, a community newspaper serving Boston's largest neighborhood, where he covered a range of urban issues. Since the late 1980s, he has been a regular contributor to the Boston Globe. For 15 years he wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Sunday Globe's City Weekly section.
Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In 1989, he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for "Our Times," a weekly magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Michael lives in Dorchester with his wife and their two daughters.
About Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in early 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His cover story in CommonWealth's Fall 1999 issue on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Michael got his start in journalism at the Dorchester Community News, a community newspaper serving Boston's largest neighborhood, where he covered a range of urban issues. Since the late 1980s, he has been a regular contributor to the Boston Globe. For 15 years he wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Sunday Globe's City Weekly section.
Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In 1989, he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for "Our Times," a weekly magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Michael lives in Dorchester with his wife and their two daughters.
And because he was not even listed a registered voter in Brookline as recently as Monday, that means Brady also did not cast a vote in the Massachusetts Republican presidential primary on March 1, when his sometime golfing pal, now the president-elect, scored a runaway victory.
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