The Column: Fewer city polling places triggers uproar

By STAFF | Lowell Sun

At-large candidate Bobby Tugbiyele also put out a statement with a call for action Tuesday, asking people to contact the Election Commission and reconsider their vote on the polling locations.

“As a candidate for Lowell City Council at-large, I am committed to transparency, inclusion, equity and access,” Tugbiyele wrote. “With less than three months until a preliminary election in Lowell, changes like this need to be done with the people, not to the people.”

Councilors Dave Conway, Rodney Elliott and Bill Samaras — all of whom are up for re-election — each filed motions related to the polling locations. They noted concerns about the reductions decreasing voter access.

Conway and Samaras — who are both seeking the Belvidere district seat, along with Mayor John Leahy — said they felt the implementation of the new election system should have been delayed until the next municipal election to ensure the city was fully prepared.

Samaras said he saw no ill intent in the polling location plan, and surmised that cost-saving may have been part of the equation. But with the city in better financial footing than expected at this point in the pandemic and all of the federal stimulus money rolling in, he believes the city can afford to enhance the voting process to ensure better access. He also doesn’t want Lowell to get lumped in with other parts of the country where voter suppression is a major concern.

While the Election Commission is an independent body, Samaras suggested the council — which tends to be the go-to body for city residents — should have had a little more input in the polling location plan.

“I can understand why they did it, but at the same time, the calls you get, you know, ‘Are you crazy?’ ‘What are you people doing?’ ‘We elected you guys to do this — can’t you walk and chew gum at the same time?'” Samaras said, rattling off concerns he’s heard from residents.

Conway was much more harsh. He said he thought the judge and courts “should have waited and used a bit more common sense.”

“Now, we as a city are certainly left with the job of cleaning up the mess that was in part created by, I think, a hasty decision,” Conway said.

“With all due respect to Councilor Conway, I disagree with that,” said Tooch Van, a voting rights lawsuit plaintiff and a candidate for the South Lowell district seat, said in response. “This is the year we should do it based on settlement.”

Conway’s criticism goes beyond the timing. Conway — who touted his vote against the consent decree — never wanted the hybrid district system to begin with.

In 2019, Conway said he filed a motion seeking a nonbinding ballot question to ask voters if they wanted to change the city’s election system, rather than “have 13 people make the decision for 62,000.”

But, he said, Samaras, who was then mayor, didn’t let him speak on it.

Elliott, who’s seeking a minimum of two polling locations per district, said he was glad to hear the Election Commission is reconsidering the reduction. Even if additional polls aren’t in the final plan, he said he’s all for maintaining the existing 13 locations in order to provide equitable access to voters.

Elliott said people are already confused about the changes to the election system, so throwing in more complications now isn’t going to help.

“There’s enough change with ballots and candidates,” he said. “So keeping the same polling places, that’s a good constant that people don’t have to worry about.”

But wait, there’s more

THE POLLING place issue will be discussed during the City Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting on July 13.

But late last week, councilors were notified about a special meeting this Tuesday to consider filing a home rule petition that would allow the city to continue early voting, mail-in voting and drop boxes for the Sept. 20 primary and Nov. 2 general election.

All pandemic-related voting measures expired on June 30, as the state Legislature was unable to agree on whether they should be extended.

Exacerbating the situation is the city has been unable to create new precinct boundaries because it is still waiting for 2020 census results.

Other communities are in the same boat, such as Boston and Newton. With so much uncertainty, the state’s top voting official, Secretary of State William Galvin, is urging communities to file home rule petitions to continue pandemic-related voting measures to ensure as many who vote can, indeed, vote.