To get on the Mass. ballot, incumbent Democrats got a hand from their public employees

Over the course of several weeks this spring, at least seven public employees working under Secretary of State William F. Galvin popped into city or town halls on weekdays to file paperwork to help get the eight-term incumbent back on the ballot.

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For House Speaker Ron Mariano, it was his chief of staff who helped handle the political task; for state Auditor Diana DiZoglio, an intern in her taxpayer-funded office chipped in. Four aides to Attorney General Andrea Campbell, including her office’s top communications official, submitted documents to help ensure she could run for reelection.

The campaign work, their offices said, was all within legal bounds: Their employees used their own vacation, personal, or comp time to help their elected bosses, oftentimes when they would otherwise be working their taxpayer-funded jobs. Several elected officials said they did not ask the employees to help, nor was the campaign work required as part of their official duties.

But public employees’ decision to pitch in on their bosses’ reelection campaigns can create a delicate dance to avoid illegally mixing political and public work. And staff performing the campaign tasks can nonetheless create uncomfortable optics for the elected officials, according to political watchers.

“It feels a bit off to have your employees helping you get set up for your next campaign,” said Ray La Raja, the co-director of the UMass-Amherst Poll. “First, because I wonder about how voluntary it is if that’s your boss. And second, it just seems a bit of a conflict of interest for the person doing it — because they’re going to benefit directly from their boss staying in power.”

The Globe reviewed so-called nomination papers that campaigns submitted to more than 40 cities and towns across Greater Boston and in other cities, including Springfield, New Bedford,Pittsfield, and Worcester. Municipal clerks are responsible for verifying the signatures turned in by campaigns before candidates, including statewide incumbents, can qualify for the September primary ballot.

Massachusetts law bars elected officials from using public resources for election-related purposes. Unelected public employees also cannot engage in campaign work on public time, according to the state Ethics Commission.

Employees from across several offices took steps not to cross those lines, their offices said. In some cases, spokespeople for Galvin and Campbell said the workers dropped off campaign documents during their unpaid lunch breaks. Others took vacation days. One employee in Galvin’s Boston office used sick time from his job the same day he submitted signatures for Galvin in a city where he didn’t live.

Campbell, Galvin, DiZoglio, and others all face no primary challengers, and some have significant campaign resources. Galvin had stockpiled more than $2 million in his campaign account, while Campbell had $811,000 at the end of last month.

Campbell also employs multiple staffers on her campaign who regularly dropped off nomination papers with local clerks this year, the Globe found. Galvin filed signatures himself multiple times and in other instances, relied on volunteers, according to thereview of local records.

Other statewide officials, such as Governor Maura Healey, largely used campaign workers, Democratic party staff or volunteers, or their campaign mailed in nomination papers to get their signatures, records show.

Galvin has faced criticism in the past after public employees in 2018 filed nomination papers on his behalf. An internal review that year found that three of 19 employees identified by the Globe at the time of submitting documents for him likely did the campaign work for him during work hours.

Both Galvin and Campbell declined interview requests for this story.

The four public staffers in Campbell’s office who dropped off signatures did so between March and May at towns stretching from Milton to Natick, records show. Campbell’s office said the work was “voluntary” and “conducted on employees’ personal time.”

One of Campbell’s top aides, communications director Molly McGlynn, submitted signatures at three town halls on May 1, including before noon in Natick, when her timesheet showed she logged a 7.5-hour workday.

McGlynn worked “substantially more” that day and was not on paid time when she dropped off the documents,according to Campbell’s office, which described her as an “exempt” employee who is not required to work standard hours and does not need to take time off, so long as 7.5 hours of work are completed in a day.

Adelaide Pagano, an assistant attorney general in Campbell’s consumer protection division, filed election papers in Dedham on March 20 during what Campbell’s office said was her lunchtime. Two other special assistants in the office submitted signatures on a day records show they took personal or vacation time.

At least two employees in Galvin’s Boston office dropped off paperwork for the secretary, though each of them either used a vacation day, a personal day, or visited a city hall after 6 p.m., according to timesheets provided by Galvin’s office.

One of the employees, Calvin Brown — who works as an election specialist and also is a Chelsea city councilor — submitted nomination papers for the secretary in Melrose on March 18, the same day he used 7.5 hours of sick time, records show.

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Brown did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls.

And at least five staffers in registries of deeds,which fall under Galvin’s supervision, also submitted signatures for him, the Globe review found. That includes two elected officials — Suffolk County Register of Deeds Stephen Murphy and Berkshire County Register of Deeds Patsy Harris — who filedsignatures in Boston and Pittsfield on workdays in March, though as elected officials they do not file hourly timesheets.

Murphy did not respond to requests for comment. When contacted, Harris told a Globe reporter she would call back “as soon as I clear my office.” She did not respond to follow-up calls or messages.

Tyler Carlton-Kelley, who works at the Southern Essex Registry of Deeds and also serves on the Democratic State Committee, visited the Lynn and Salem city halls at least three times in March and April to drop off nomination papers on Galvin’s behalf, according to public records. He said he was “never asked” by Galvin’s campaign to drop off papers, and “took those days off.”

“I was just willing to do it,” Carlton-Kelley said. “This is something I just care about and enjoy doing.”

Dan Urman, a Northeastern University professor who focuses on politics and law, said it’s not surprising that people who work for elected leaders are also their political supporters. But he said the activities “might be questionable in the eyes of the voting public.”

“It’s one of those things where the line between law and politics gets blurred,” Urman said.

An intern submitted signature papers at 2:51 p.m. on April 27 at Boston City Hall for DiZoglio, the first-time state auditor. The intern’s timesheet shows they worked 7.5 hours that day, but Michael Leung-Tat, DiZoglio’s general counsel, said the part-time college student erroneously logged hours for that day when they “actually instead worked and staffed the auditor at official events” the day earlier.

“She has apologized for this error and mistake and will be retrained on proper timekeeping,” Leung-Tat said in a statement. He added that DiZoglio’s office is also “retraining” its interns on ethics and political finance laws and “the importance of preventing the appearance of a potential conflict.”

Aides to state representatives and senators, too, have filed signatures for their bosses’ campaigns.

John Walsh, the chief of staff for Mariano, the House’s top Democrat, submittedpaperwork twice in Quincy during workdays in March and once in Weymouth on April 6.

Ana Vivas, a Mariano spokesperson, declined to share Walsh’s timesheet, but said he took personal time “to volunteer for the speaker’s political campaign, which is reflected in his timesheets and permitted under state law.”

“The speaker did not require John to do this as part of his position as a House employee,” Vivas said.

Aides to state Senators Paul Feeney of Foxborough, Mark Montigny of New Bedford, and Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth, as well as state Representative Jeff Turco of Winthrop, also dropped off nomination papers in Weymouth, Canton, Dartmouth, Winthrop, and Revere, records show.

All four lawmakers’ offices said the aides were not on public time when they filed signatures. Greg Denton, O’Connor’s chief of staff, said he believed he was using “earned comp time and on my free time” when he submitted signatures for his boss in Weymouth in March and April.

“If I did not think that, I would not have dropped them off,” Denton said in a statement.

O’Connor said his staff members work “60 to 65 hours a week,” that they “don’t eat lunch,” and, in turn, accumulated a “tremendous amount of comp time.” He also described the process of submitting signatures as an “in-and-out, one-minute thing.”

“The papers will be hanging around the office,” O’Connor said. “It’s just one of those things. If they’re hanging around, and there’s Weymouth on the way, [the aide will] drop them off.”

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