Remarks by Ruthzee Louijeune
94 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 4
- Play at 1:48:18
“Thank you. Council member the chair recognizes comes from here You have the floor in five minutes Thank You chair”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 1:48:29
“You can go, I'm just struggling. Let me make sure.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 1:54:15
“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…”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 1:58:28
“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.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:00:15
“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…”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:06:03
“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?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:07:09
“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?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:07:39
“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?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:08:08
“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?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:09:47
“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?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:10:19
“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.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:11:39
“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.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:16:43
“You're good. You have a minute. I have a minute?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:18:22
“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.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:18:42
“But if you need more, you're the only counselor you can take. Well, we'll be here until tomorrow.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:20:58
“I'm sorry, can I just, first time doing an election with?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:30:11
“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…”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:31:43
“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.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:32:40
“OK. Michael Sullivan continues to be the Secretary of State's designee.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:32:48
“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?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:33:41
“Okay. Did the elections group review David C. King's 2007 blueprint?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:33:49
“And were the 2025 requests for the firm's contract and comparable city work answered?”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:33:57
“There was, I think there were requests from 2025 for the firm's contract and comparable city work.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:34:08
“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.”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026
- Play at 2:41:57
“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…”
City Council · Oct 2, 2026