The Somerville City Council wants to make sure that all eligible voters be allowed to apply for absentee ballots for the upcoming primary and presidential election.

By Jim Clark

An order was put forward at the latest regular meeting of the Somerville City Council on April 7 asking that the Election Commissioner discuss mailing absentee applications to registered voters for the upcoming primary and general elections.

Speaking in favor of the order that she submitted to the Council, Ward 7 Councilor Katjana Ballantyne said, “The reason that I submitted this order was with the goal in mind to have the most number of registered voters, giving them the ability to vote in Somerville. And the Massachusetts Secretary of State has deemed that he will not allow municipalities to directly mail ballots to voters. And so, with the upcoming primary and general election, I would like the Elections Department to discuss with us the ability to mail out absentee ballot applications to the registered voters here in Somerville.”

Ward 2 Councilor Jefferson Thomas (“J.T.”) Scott expressed his support of the order saying, “I have actually engaged in some conversation over a week ago with our Elections Commissioner, Commissioner Salerno, about this. The guidance is miserable. Towns are able to delay their spring elections and allow them to use their absentee ballots, but the cities have not been given permission by the Secretary of State. And the state has not made any decisions on changing laws or procedures yet for September first to November third.”

Scott emphasized that “this is really on the Secretary of State, and I encourage my colleagues to reach out both to our State Delegation and to the Secretary of State. But in addition, I love this as a potential workaround to the failure to act by our state government. I love exploring this, and I look forward to the conversation with the commissioner about the possibility of mailing absentee applications to all of our constituents.”

Ward 5 Councilor Mark Niedergang added his support to the order saying, “This is incredibly important. We’re facing a primary here that’s contested to a U.S. Senate seat and the presidential election. We should be setting an example here in Massachusetts to the rest of the country, whereas we see in Wisconsin today, where voting rights are being suppressed. We should be making it as easy as possible for people to vote. And so I welcome this discussion, I look forward to it. I hope that we can talk further. I think that others are better informed than I am about the status quo, but I hope that we can all talk further together in public about how we might weigh in with the Secretary of State, with the legislature, with the governor, to get Massachusetts to be in the leadership role that it should be in allowing everybody to vote as easily and safely as possible.”

The entire Council signed on to the order, which was laid on the table for further discussion at the next Council meeting, thus giving the Elections Commissioner an opportunity to investigate the matter and prepare a report for the Council.