City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday. For the record, my name is Ruthie Louis-Jeanne, at-large city councillor, and I am the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Census, Redistricting, and Elections. Today is October 2nd, 2026, and the exact time is 10.07 a.m. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being live streamed at boston.gov forward slash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, Fios Channel 964. Our written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.census at boston.gov and will be made a part of the record and available to all

Thank you, Councillor. And I, too, was at the event last night at Jeremiah program. I want to thank Alison and all the incredible black women who do incredible work to make sure that civic engagement is centered here in our city. So I want to say thank you to this incredible panel. We'll kick it off with five minutes of testimony from each of you. We have Tracy from the ACLU here, and then we have a video from Rahsaan over at the Urban League. So thank you so much. We'll kick it off in order before us, and we will start with You, Brooke, we have Brooke Simone here, a staff attorney, lawyers fo

Thank you so much, Celia. And we've also been joined by Council President Liz Breeden. Celia.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Celia. We now move on to Cheryl Clyburn Crawford. I said the executive director of MassVote. But hold on, y'all. She's also the chair of the Yes on 4 ballot committee. And hold on. Executive committee's second vice president? OK. Executive committee of the NAACP Boston branch here. So thank you so much for being with us. Cheryl, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Cheryl. We'll now turn it over to Tracy. Tracy, you have the floor.

Thank you so much, Tracy, and thank you for laying out some issues that we need to work on. I did see the administration writing down some of the issues, so I think they're taking some of those to hearts, and that's one of the reasons why we have these hearings, so thank you so much. And lastly, we have a video from Rahsaan Hall, Executive Director of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, that we will play.

Thank you so much to Rasaan. Thank you to all of the panelists. We've also been joined by Councillor Weber. I don't know if any of my colleagues were going to put in the questions if you wanted to offer an opening or if we could just go right into questions. Okay, thank you. I have also received an absence letter from Councillor Enrique Pepin, dear Chair Louis-Jean, Mr. Clerk, and Council colleagues. I regret to inform you that I am unable to attend this morning's committee on census, redistricting, and elections hearing on docket number 0183, order for a hearing regarding voter accessibility

all it takes is the one person who grabs the mail in your household um actually my fiance did this to us where he threw out the street listing i had to fish it out and uh get that to and if it's not returned to all the voters in the household then are deemed yes all the voters in the household are then deemed i don't believe that in boston we we do this do we do this to the same extent that we do we do okay we'll talk about it at the on the next panel absolutely

Thank you. I know that this was a major issue in the last municipal election as well in other jurisdictions. So I'd love to, it doesn't have to be at this moment, but if someone can name the bill so we can see what this committee can do to be in support, that would be helpful if anyone has the bill number and status of where it stands and who filed it and how we can be supportive.

Thanks. Brooke, I know you also spoke to this, so I'm not sure if you wanted to.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I've heard about it from a number of voters, particularly I hear about it from Haitian voters in other jurisdictions. And so I want to make sure that this is something that we can work on. Are we at the point where any sort of benefit that we think we're getting from removing people from the rolls is completely outweighed by the harm that is happening? And it sounds like that we may be at that tipping point, and we may have been there for some time. Okay, I'm talking too much, so I won't be able to get to my questions. But my next, oh, and we've been joined by Councillor

Thank you, Cheryl. And Tracy, I just want to, whenever you want to jump in, also, Tracy, feel free. I am now going to move on to my colleagues. And I have more questions, so there'll be a second round. I'll ask the second round. But Council President Braden, you have the floor.

Thank you. I think this issue with inactive voting is definitely need to address it. I'm curious, the Lawrence precinct with 80% inactive voters who were had to probably take a provisional ballot. Is the current immigration climate impacting? Are folks afraid to return their municipal census? I'm just curious.

Thank you. So same day voter registration really seems like a no-brainer to me, but... and these 24 other states have been doing it. Are there particular barriers in Massachusetts that, you know, do we have an exception to the rule? Why is it such a challenge here? Are there particular barriers that people hold up and say we couldn't do?

So in terms of who are the folks that are the most impacted by the inability to register same day voter registration?

So Cheryl, you said you went up to New Hampshire to observe what they did. In terms of their best practices from our neighboring states that are doing this, are there best practices that we should try and emulate?

And I represent Alston Brighton, so 70 per cent of the neighbourhood changed its address on September 1st, which is bad. It's a big problem. So I know one argument that I've heard from an elected official was that, well, having same-day or election-day registration prevents them mailing their residents and having a conversation about policy or whatever. Is there an antidote to that, or is there a counterargument for that? Like, you should be talking to everybody, regardless, but encouraging people to register ahead of time?

What new responsibilities would fall on municipal elections officials or poll workers to do election day registration? You said it's not a numerous task.

I'm a big proponent. In the constituency I came from back home in Northern Ireland, it was considered a major disaster if voter turnout decreased to 60 per cent. That was what's gone wrong. There are good reasons why that was high. How can we, I feel voting is such a sacred responsibility. It's like serving on a jury. And it's been really part of being a citizen and being really engaged. How can we try and, like I think 80 million people didn't vote in the last presidential election. How can we really work with young people and everybody to get them to be more, to actually get out and vote? Li

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. We've also been joined by Councillor Arell. Councillor Weber, you have the floor in seven minutes.

Oh, you're going to start at the clock for me.

Sorry, seven minutes. If you need more, we'll come back. Seven minutes is pretty generous.

Okay, no, thank you. Just following up on that last question, I saw there's a, I don't know who he's writing for now, E.J. Dionne had a book out. Year or so ago about voter participation participation. He looked at Australia, which has very high participation They also they find people $20 if they don't vote and that apparently gets your voter turnout very high I I don't I'm not suggesting that here, but I mean is there some something we can do to Incentivize people to go out to vote. I don't know what you think about Australia I love that

Yeah, well, certainly before we did anything like that, we need to make sure we can get people registered, remove the obstacles to voting. But did you have something?

OK. And then so for same day registration or voting day registration, like I think you, what do we have to have in place for that to be effective? You know, is it, can we do it with the same staff? Do we need machines and, you know, like what will we need to move to get that, make that effective?

Anybody have any thoughts on, we have a question, I think it's seven, about eliminating party primaries here in the state. Is it three? Sorry, I apologize. Any thoughts on how that would, would it impact participation, increase, decrease? Your thoughts? No? I don't know whether the no is I don't want to answer or no or would not.

Thank you. I will say that a lot of labor is against question three, and I know that question and and i think question three when you look at there are a lot of questions there's a lot of issues but if we're talking about expanding democracy and really giving voters a choice i think question three is a wrong question the right question is rate choice voting which we did take here up here on the council so just putting my two cents out there and i love that you raised election day uh Election Day should be a federal holiday, so I just want to thank you. If you have more questions, Councilor, we

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for hosting this hearing. And for those who may not know, I won by one vote, so you know I'm going to show up for this hearing because... Every vote literally matters, and the more that we can reduce barriers for engagement, I am always gonna show up for that. I also just, I know we're gonna talk to Sabino and Carrie later, so these are my people, and I'm really excited that we're gonna be able to brainstorm together about what we need to do to address some of the apathy that exists here in the city of Boston. But just really quick, I have a few questions. So al

Thank you. So then one of the concerns that people sometimes raise about the same-day voter registration is election security. Can you please explain how Question 4 uses proof of residency, an oath to sign, and provisional ballots addresses this concern of election security?

I can't believe my time is almost up. So thank you for that. This council also recently passed a resolution in support of protecting mail-in voting. Besides mail-in voting, and same-day voter registration? How can we make voting more accessible? And what can the council do to support voting access and education? I mean, there's things that we could do right now, and I'd love to hear what you think those things are that you've seen in other municipalities. I'm all in for making voting a holiday. I think that that's no-brainer, duh. But what else can we be doing that you'd like to see us do?

And our Boston public schools play a role also in the education and civics, right? So we could be doing a better job at training the next generation of voters as well. So some signage, some public education, engagement and outreach. What else?

No, no, no, the pollster child. Thank you. I'll be back for a second round.

Thank you. And just want to make sure, Tracy, if you had anything that you wanted to chime in, you got to, you know, just talk. Just talk over me. Talk over everybody. I just want to make sure that you feel like you're a part of the conversation.

Yeah. Thank you, Tracy. And again, admin is here and we've heard a lot of comments about signage. So I'm going to take it. I'm the authority, the liberty to say that I know that they're going to be working on signage for this upcoming election. OK, the chair recognizes Councilor Rowe, you have the floor and seven minutes.

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Orrell. All right. Councilman here, you can use the rest of his time if you want. No, just kidding. We're going to do a second round right now, and I'll come back to you. I think actually one of my return questions, it was what rights and information should be posted to every site about assistance, accessible equipment, and the right to remain in line at 8 PM. It sounds like you all will say that we need more of that signage. Anything specific at the polling locations that we need to do a better job of making sure there's signage about?

And then also. Tracy, you uplifted the Higgins and Lewis in Roxbury from this primary, right? So that's something that we saw a few weeks ago. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you, Tracy. What is the plan for educating voters about the complexity of They're not complex, but there are nine questions on the ballot. And so what is a plan to educate voters? I will never forget on Election Day in 2020, it was ranked choice voting statewide. This was before I was elected myself. Ranked choice voting was on the ballot statewide. And I remember talking to voters who came out of the polling locations and said that they voted no on it. because they didn't understand the question. And I wanted to tear my hair out because I'm like, we could have done a better job of voter

Thank you. This will be my last question because everyone's going to get, oh, go ahead, Cheryl. My bad. I'm sorry. No, because I'm so excited. Yes, I know. You've been working on this.

Only three? Commissioner's saying three.

Yes, thank you. That's great. And I love—I hope that bookmark gets promoted. And I also hope that—I know that your mass vote is nonpartisan, but I hope that we are, you know, giving people, like, Yes on question four. No on question three that we are giving. I know that's not you all saying that. I'm saying that those are the positions that I'm prepared to take, that we are also sharing that information with others. Okay, I'm going to, Council President Braden, you have the floor in five minutes for any additional questions that you may have.

I think the ballot challenge caused hiccups in the polling process the last time. So multiple sheets, I think it's a question of maybe polling workers. No one to one page at a time, and put them in slowly, and don't feed them all in together. It gets chewed up, and then it screws up the whole process. But in terms of thinking about the ballots, The ballot questions, do people just skip those because it's just too hard to think about? Or do the troll, I don't want them to throw the baby out with the bathwater and decide, oh, this is just too much. I'm not even going to bother voting. What's you

The other question, maybe you want to add?

I know the issue, I'll probably ask this question of our elections department folks when they come, but how do we make sure that we have enough election poll workers on election day? because I think it's an onerous commitment. You have to be there very early in the morning and you're working late into the evening. It's not very well compensated, but it is like a civic duty. People take it very seriously. How do we recruit more people and get more people, especially our younger people, engaged in this process?

I also think, I'd love to hear your thoughts on civics education in schools. I know when I was a kiddo, our school closed for election day and all the gear arrived and our principal, we were taught in really tiny country schools. But we actually enacted what was going to happen the next day for the adults. But we had only a little election and explained what voting was all about. But how do we improve our civics education? Because I think that's a big issue as well. How do we get increased voter participation through starting to get them early?

I think it's making it a social event and, you know, let's go for coffee or go for a beer, whatever it is, to make it a social event that you do as a group. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you so much, Council President Braden. Thank you to this panel. The chair organizes Council Weber. You have five minutes.

Thank you. I will say around the presidential election of 2024, with a group of fifth graders at the BTU school, I recreated something that I remember from being a fifth grader, we ran through the electoral college, and we did a presidential election. When I was in fifth grade, it was Mondale Reagan. And we didn't do Trump-Harris, because I thought it would just be a landslide. So we did Michael Jackson versus Taylor Swift. And Michael Jackson won the popular vote, but Taylor Swift won the electoral college, because she had California and Florida. But I mean, that stuck with me for a lot of ye

OK. So in terms of federal officials showing up at polling stations, can you just explain what was the real reason why they were here during the primaries, and then do we expect this to continue?

Okay. do they care about all language access? I guess I'm just, you know, I know what's happened with the refugee program where now all of a sudden all we care about are white South Africans and, you know, that's the only people being admitted.

Yeah. Okay. And then just in terms of the practice of putting people on inactive status, so is there a policy reason to keep that, like, you know, is there a good policy reason for that or just you want to, yeah.

Okay. Okay. I GUESS MAYBE PART OF THAT IS ALSO I KNOW THERE'S PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE CENSUS PROCESS. THERE'S BEEN AN ATTEMPT TO GET IMMIGRATION STATUS PUT ON THE CENSUS. I THINK COUNCILOR BRAVIN WAS ESSENTIALLY TALKING ABOUT SOME OF THAT. PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO RETURN THEIR CENSUS SO THAT MIGHT BE ANOTHER REASON TO MAKE SURE BY 2030 WE'RE NOT STILL RELYING ON THAT. DO I HAVE THAT CORRECT?

Thank you. Council member the chair recognizes comes from here You have the floor in five minutes Thank You chair

You can go, I'm just struggling. Let me make sure.

All right, so I often talk about the fact that my mom has a low literacy. She didn't make it beyond the third grade. And so that book is not only the letters are small, it's just not accessible to folks who have low literacy. And I'm just curious, what if any advocacy You'd like to see around maybe utilizing more visuals as ways to educate and inform people I also am a big advocate of audio So just curious if you have seen other other cities or states doing things around language Information justice is really what I like to call it not just language access I just think that we have to start th

Yeah, I don't know if I'll have to answer just because my time is ticking. But if she said everything, we're good.

Yeah, I'm good. I've got three more questions, and I'm trying to get them in before my time. OK, so I'm also curious about the poll workers in diverse languages. I'm curious what, if any, partnerships you have in terms of tapping to nonprofit organizations with diverse language skills.

Yeah, because what I think would be important is, like, yes, we need election day coverage, but if there's a way... I'm looking up. y'all back there, to maybe even bring people on board sooner so that those poll workers are also educating maybe their immediate neighborhoods. It's going to be election day next week. Make sure you have a plant. There's other ways that we could activate folks, that it's not just a one-off. And I think that that would also help support the level of enthusiasm. Voting isn't sexy. It's not fun. Who wants to go turn up at a poll? Nobody, right? Unless you know whatev

We can make it fun, right? We should. And I've been to some of your election day parties, and I love them. But in 2000, to Councilor Rubber's going down memory lane, I used to work at MTV. And I covered the presidential elections between Gore And I got to travel the entire country trying to get young people enthusiastic about voting. And that was my first experience with why people don't care. And you're absolutely right, Tracy. People don't understand the connection that politics has on their day-to-day life. And that was in 2000. And then after that, I came back home. And then I initiated th

Thank you. Thank you to this really wonderful panel for your insights and for all you do to uphold democracy and to make sure democracy is accessible to those who have too often been forgotten by our systems. Intentionally so, folks who are working class, too often are black and brown voters, voters of color. Like comes to me, he has stated, those with low literacy rates. We want to think about how we're bringing everybody into the democratic process. And the advice that you gave us and the advice that you've given to the city, I think, will be really well taken. Yes, on question four, so that

I'll give you another two minutes, just because you're the only person here for public testimony, but then we will turn to, so you can continue for two more minutes.

Thank you, Alan, and thank you for your advocacy. Before we turn over to this panel, something else that you mentioned and that others mentioned is that the fear about voter fraud and how low incidences of any fraud, whether we're talking about Massachusetts or around the country, how low it is. And as someone who used to fight against voter ID laws because we knew that they were more of an intimidation and a chilling tactic than they were one about voter fraud, I just wanted to thank everyone for reiterating how damaging it is when we put that language out into our democratic process. Thank y

Okay, well, thank you. Thank you to you all for being here. My first question is that the department remains subject to the Secretary Galvin's February 2025 order. What has Michael Sullivan reviewed or approved for November? Which requirements are fully met? And are there unresolved findings or corrective actions? And when will the Secretary of State's order terminate?

Thank you. We listened to the earlier panel talk about accessibility issues, talk about signage issues. After the September primary, what did the incidents log show by precinct and category?

Okay. Well, I guess I'll ask the question more directly. We heard from the prior panel about how we can improve upon accessibility when it comes to signage, when it comes to information about assistance at polling locations. Is that something that we're ready to implement and do?

And what will we be doing? Are we doing anything differently? You know, we heard about the sandwich boards. What else we can do? Billboards, more advertisements on the radio. What else are we thinking about doing to increase voter engagement and voter turnout?

Thank you. And one of the things that I'll say that I was happy to support is that electronic poll books are now the norm at all of our polling locations. And I was very excited. And I was very excited to see how seamlessly it's working. Trying to get in one more question. In 2024, the issue that we saw, that election that led to ballot shortages, the double subtraction in the ballot formula contributed to them. Is the 100% of registered voters redistribution policy enforced in every precinct, in every ballot card this November?

And I think Cheryl also talked about this too, how we're making sure that there are no pages missing, especially we have, you said, three pages for the very long nine ballot questions.

Thank you. I have a few additional questions, but I'll turn it to my colleagues. Council President Braden, you have the floor in six minutes.

Thank you. Good to see you all. Thank you so much. And yes, thank you to the Elections Department for their diligent attention. This is a hugely important issue for us in the city. Just looking forward to recent national reporting on highlighted a Supreme Court decision allowing states to access a new federal voter verification system that combines citizenship, Social Security and other government records to identify potentially ineligible voters. Given Boston's commitment to both election integrity and voter access, can the Election Commission explain what procedures are in place to ensure th

And then also the other issue, you talked about manpower and the great team that you have. You said 1,700 poll workers. What's the current status of recruitment for poll workers and are there vacancies that remain still vacant to be filled? And take your moment to pitch the job for wanted poll workers.

And can poll workers sign up to work in their own district or are they sent other places? Because I think one of the areas, it's an early morning start if you don't have your own transit, your own wheels, your own transportation, you rely on public transit or whatever. How does it work and are there particular areas in the city where you still need more people?

Okay, we'll give it a plug. And how can we as city councillors strengthen accountability around election administration while maintaining confidence in the election outcomes? What do you need from us to support you to do your very important job?

The other thing we talked earlier about accessibility and signage, I just want to say that very often election day falls on the first Tuesday of the month, which happens to be street cleaning day in Austin, Brighton. And people get told when they go in to vote. So make sure that ONS communicates that on an election day, we won't be towing in the vicinity of polling places. I think that might be helpful as well. I'm going to do it for time.

You're good. You have a minute. I have a minute?

Oh, wow. This is incredible. Just thinking big picture, are there other anticipated challenges for the upcoming election day? Hopefully it'll be a nice day, but...

Yeah. And really encouraging people to make a plan. Early voting's great. Get it done. But also make a plan. And if you have to vote on election day, make sure you have a plan to be there in good time and work. Do it.

Read the questions. Some of them are incredible. They're really long and quite complex. So yeah, that's our homework. Thank you. I have to go off to another meeting, but thank you all for being here. And thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor President Braden. And thank you to these questions. I want to give a big shout out to Ed Shoemaker here from Ranked Race Boston, Ranked Race Massachusetts, Boston, Ranked Race Boston. So thank you for being here with us. The chair recognizes Councillor Mia. You have the floor in six minutes.

Six or seven. We had seven the first time, five, seven, five, and now six.

But if you need more, you're the only counselor you can take. Well, we'll be here until tomorrow.

Okay. So it's good to see you all. Thank you for being here. And congratulations, Carrie, given your IT work. I am going to assume that you're going to bring a lot of that energy in terms of moderizing the electoral process. So looking forward to all your creativity in that space. And Sabino, it's always great to see you. And welcome back. It's good to see you, Commissioner. So really quick, I'm going to start with Sabino. Sabino, how long have you been here?

34 years. And over the last decades that you've been here, can you talk to us about a time when you felt like the Elections Department had it right and there weren't a lot of hiccups? Can you name that era?

All right, then. So let me ask it differently. In the last few election cycles, in the last decades, which decade would you say, I will never want to repeat this again? Was there a time in your job experience where you're like, oh. Mm-mm, never again.

I'm sorry, can I just, first time doing an election with?

All right, Sabino. See, I was trying to line you up so that you could ask for more money, but you didn't go there. I know, but I was hoping you would name some things that I could be like, all right. But you didn't, and it's all good. So now let me ask the question. You had mentioned, Commissioner, that in 2028, everything that we're going to have to do to prepare for the presidential elections, that you're going to look to this body to help support. And I'm glad that you're asking now because there's also redistricting that's going to be happening in 2030. There's a lot happening all at the s

Yeah, that would be great. I think that we have to get ahead of these conversations, so I think it's good that you're already planting those seeds and getting us to start thinking about how we build capacity, because I always believe we can do this all we want, but if on this side of the aisle, if we're not providing you all with the resources that you need, it's just a whole bunch of just political theater when we're talking about this happened, but what did you do to advocate for the funds so that this department could actually be fully functioning? I think that it's really important for us

I am curious, though, in terms of how the department interfaces with other departments. I'm thinking about BHA. I'm thinking about the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston Public Schools. How do you see that coordination? the Office of Direct Organizing and Civic Engagement and Community Engagement, what role do you all play in interfacing with those other departments?

Yeah, no, I love that. And I always say that we're resource rich but coordination poor. And I think that that is an area of opportunity to kind of strengthen more the communication flow that comes out. Like I think about the Boston Public Health Commission and some of our community health centers. They do intakes where, you know, do you feel safe at home? There's lots of things that you get asked. There could be another question that you ask, are you registered to vote? I mean, there is so many low-hanging fruit in ways that we can really strengthen civic engagement and make that part of our e

And I'm curious, what I have seen here in my time, and I'm learning a lot as I go, is that you were really good at saying all bad things that are happening we're good at that but this would be an opportunity to talk about all of the amazing things that you are I know you wrote you you know listed lots of really great numbers but what would you want people to know about the Elections Department and the staff that works there not just your outputs and the things that you do but just like real stuff I mean those are real things but like what do you want people to know about your team

And I also just want to thank your entire team. I love going down there and be like, hey, how y'all doing? And it is definitely oftentimes when there's so much in the news and just people always targeting us, it could be sometimes demoralizing. So just want to acknowledge how much we appreciate I'll speak for myself and I know council illusion that we deeply care and are Very grateful for the amount of time and energy that you all put to making sure that people have access And I think that my colleagues that are not here today Hopefully they'll watch this and realize the important work that yo

Thank you, Councilor Mejia. And I want to echo how just the Elections Department really is one of one and how hard everyone works, which is why it was really unfortunate because people only pay attention or the cameras only come when something bad happens. And we never want there to be ballot shortages. We never want someone to call and not get through. But we know that More often than not, when people are calling, they are getting through in that ballot. More often than not, ballot people are getting the ballots that they need. But just to piggyback off of that, how are we ensuring that one o

And these are just some rapid-fire questions that I have. We love the electronic poll books. I'm going to say that again. But what is the backup in case, you know, Wi-Fi goes out or in case there's some other issues? Easy, easy.

OK. Michael Sullivan continues to be the Secretary of State's designee.

Has there been any communication recently about anything pertinent that the body should be aware of? Or do we feel like that this will be the last election where we sort of have that designee relationship with the Secretary of State's office?

Okay. Did the elections group review David C. King's 2007 blueprint? And were the 2025 requests for the firm's contract and comparable city work answered?

There was, I think there were requests from 2025 for the firm's contract and comparable city work.

All right, thank you very much. Those are, I think, the main questions that I have on my end. I want to thank all of you. Oh, Councillor Mejia. Councillor Mejia has additional questions.

Yeah, I was waiting for, yeah, second round.

Can you just please discuss how you distribute multilingual ballots to each polling location? How do you determine how many and which sites get which languages? I'm going to assume that's depending on the language that's spoken most, right? That's how you do it?

Great. And police are often seen at polling sites, in which one would believe that requires extra officers to be on duty that day and likely require more overtime. And we're on a budget. So I'm just curious, could individuals like civilian flaggers or others play this role instead?

So maybe we could update the ordinance and amend it so that we can reflect that. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe the legal eagles can advise us accordingly, but who knows. I just think that the more pathways that we can create for strengthening opportunities for other folks would be great. So I don't know, something worth looking into. And then what logistical and administrative issues does the election department struggle with the most? And Then I'm just curious. Can you please explain? Central tabulation and why the city does it the way that it does especially with the way it posts unofficial Ele

I would increase that maybe to $50 or something. I don't know. Listen, y'all. I know for me, I'm always on a budget coming $20, $30 to come all the way down to City Hall. Is it virtual? You got to be in here in person too. That's parking you have to pay for. There's a lot of barriers that we're putting on to people participating here. Listen, I'm not trying to change everything, but I think there is some worth. Maybe y'all can do it in the district and maybe y'all can be the ones to go to where the people are at and train them there. Maybe do regional trainings and provide pizza.

I know I would show up, I'm getting fed, and I don't have to get on the train to come to City Hall for two and a half hours. I think we should change the way y'all do that. I'm gonna put an ordinance for that as well, how you feel about that, Sabina? Nah, all jokes aside, I really do believe as someone who's all about making sure that people participate not just in electoral politics, but just in their own lives, I think that the more that we can do to make it easier for folks. You can't do the training virtually, obviously not, because you have to see the machines or... No, we do some trainin

I'll just say one last thing. I know I was jokingly making reference getting folks more engaged. I think that some of the poll workers that have already been trained could take on some more leadership role, and you can create a little pipeline, and maybe they could help do some of the trainings.

That's great, because what that does is that gives them some leadership development, and also they can do it in their own district, they could host the training and lead it, and that could be less, another way to remove the barrier. So, you know, just more things that you can ask for more money in next year's budget to make it all happen. But yeah, I'm not gonna give you all more things and then not, you know, but if there's anything that I can do to be helpful, please know that I'm here for all of it, and thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Mejia. The one thing that I'll say, and sorry, we've entered the part of the chat where it's like you're just asking questions, but Councilor Mejia did mention, and I think I saw you do it, Kerry, like more visuals. And I think that would be really helpful. I saw you do a really great visual when it came to election day. It was early voting. We need to make sure we are propping up early voting as much as possible. But I think that that would be more helpful. And we tend to rely, Heavily on social media, but also not everyone is social media is on social media So we actuall

Yeah, I think that would be great, especially at our schools, especially when you're talking about preregistration at the age of 16, 17. So, yeah, I would definitely think about that, and I know my colleagues will as well, think about how to integrate. I do see the department out in community. We need to think about better ways of integrating that, centering you more. So, yeah, thank you. We will, Commissioner, we will take that into under advisement.

So what does that look like actually? Is the election department going into schools and there are tables with registration drives?

Thank you. I also encourage you, I mean, I don't know if it's you or if it's the schools, to make sure that they're working with the student government body or whatever, whatever the name is. I think it's called different things in different schools.

And so I just hope that the school department is not just an adult-run thing, that they're also engaging the students who would be most inclined to lead on this as well. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. To this panel, we really respect the work that you do. There are always growing pains and changes, and sometimes we take learning opportunities as what they are to improve. So really grateful for you. I know we didn't talk about it, but I know that this is an election department that would be ready to implement election day voter registration. Should it be passed on the ballot and implemented

And I believe in your ability to do that as well. Thank you very much and enjoy the rest of your Friday. Thank you. We have one more person signed up for public testimony.

I'm not sure, Shane, if there's anyone virtually.

There's no one virtually. We have one more person signed up for public testimony and that is someone who's no stranger here. Ed Shoemaker from Voter Choice Massachusetts and in Dorchester. Ed, you have the floor and you have two minutes. And a former commissioner. That's why I said no stranger to this, anyone.

And Ed reminded me of something, so I'm not going to let you go just yet. We did talk about the, we didn't talk about how it affects Boston, the census, the municipal census, and decoupling that with the voter roll. Just thoughts on that, because I think that, what have we seen? Has that been a problem in Boston and what should we do about it?

I'm trying to read between any lines there. So I understand why it's important for the city to do the municipal census. I do. I want us to get an accurate count. But we are seeing that it can be disenfranchising to voters. And we know that even when there are attempts made, like I'm not going to tell you what my response rate is to my mail, even though I am someone who physically loves checking the mail. Let's ask my staff. there still are sometimes barriers in time as to responding. So I'm wondering, is it worth that, even the effort that we're putting out, to then the potential of disenfranc

Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Are there formal things that I need to read in order to adjourn this hearing that I now put away? But I am really grateful. This was a really thought-provoking and educational hearing for me and I know for my colleagues as well. So thank you to my colleagues for being here. Thank you to Councilor Mejia for sticking it out and still being here with us. We know that the work is going to continue, and we know that all of you will continue that work. We will be asking for a vote on docket 1805 in support of question four, election day registration voting. And we will h