Update: Article 26 passed, Article 27 failed.
Town Meeting will vote on two motions that call for Lexington to expand voter rights during its annual session this year, which begins this week.
One motion calls for granting green card holders the right to vote in local elections and the other calls for granting voting rights in local elections to residents aged 16 and older.
LexObserver spoke with the originators of Articles 26 and 27 to hear why they believe the town should expand voting rights. Here’s what we learned:
Article 26
Nathalie Huitema and her family moved from California to Lexington while the world was quarantining from COVID-19. She enrolled her children in Lexington’s public schools, which were conducting schooling in a hybrid format due to the pandemic.
Huitema noticed her children’s mental health started to decline as they continued to attend school online. She decided to get more involved with Lexington to learn about the town’s School Committee and the decisions it made.
At the time, Lexington was gearing up for a town election. Huitema, who’s originally from the Netherlands, was eager to cast her ballot with her picks for School Committee.
Little did she know, she could not vote for School Committee candidates because that election is part of the larger town election, which she does not have the right to vote in because she’s a green card holder.
A green card holder is a permanent resident who’s authorized to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis. Green card holders are not US citizens.
Huitema told LexObserver she appreciates Lexington’s participatory style of local government but finds it ironic that so many tax-paying residents can’t have a say in their leadership because they aren’t citizens.
“For me that felt unfair,” she said. “The School Committee talks about raising diversity, equity, equality, ‘everybody needs to be able to participate’…there is still a pretty big group of people who aren’t able to do all that because they don’t have the right to vote locally.”
So, Huitema created the citizen petition, known as Article 26, because she believes green card holders should have the right to vote in local elections.
The motion asks the town to authorize the Select Board to petition Massachusetts General Court to enact legislation that would grant Lexington the authority to grant legal voting rights to green card holders in town elections. The motion also asks for green card holders to be able to vote on general election ballot questions that concern the town.
“I would be so happy if we could be that rallying cry and apply the same principle of no taxation without representation 250 years later,” she said.
Other municipalities such as Cambridge, Newton, and Somerville have also petitioned the state to allow immigrants to vote in local elections.
“I believe there’s strength in numbers, so the more and more towns do this, the more and more [the state] cannot keep denying it,” she said. “They may think, ‘okay, this is what the towns want, then this might be something that we’re going to do.’”
Passing this motion would send a message to immigrants in Lexington that they are included and they have a voice in shaping the town they live in and serve, Huitema noted, which she thinks is only fair.
Article 27
After Town Meeting members cast their votes on Article 26 during this year’s annual session, they’ll vote on another article that similarly calls for expanding voter rights.
Article 27 is based on a citizen petition created by Kunal Botla, a Town Meeting member who represents Precinct 4. The motion asks the town to authorize the Select Board to petition Massachusetts General Court to enact legislation that would allow Lexington to let residents aged 16 and older vote in local elections.
Botla said he believes passing this motion is important because 16 and 17 year olds are a core part of the local economy, some — like Botla has since he was 15 — contribute to town government, and those ages are a good time in a person’s life to form the habit of being politically involved.
“There’s a lot of academia and research that says if you start voting at 16, you’re more likely to stay a voter throughout your life,” he said. “But when you’re 18, you might be at college, you might have moved out of your hometown, you might be joining the military, working for the first time, or in a major transitional period of your life.”
This is the second time Botla will bring his petition before Town Meeting for a vote. Last year, the petition failed with only 49 percent of Town Meeting members in support.
Botla said the motion did not pass last year because of operational worries at the state level. The state verifies every local election and manages voter registration.
“People who are kind of more specialized with how the state manages elections…were saying that this would be something where the legislature would likely try to figure out what the state level mechanism for running these elections would look like.”
But Botla is confident the motion could pass this year because other municipalities such as Cambridge, Boston, Somerville, Brookline, Acton, and Northborough are also working to pass similar articles.
“The added discussion over the past year makes me feel good about the state of it for this year,” he said.
Both Articles 26 and 27 are first steps in expanding voter rights in Lexington. If they pass, that does not mean green card holders and residents aged 16 and older can vote in the next town election. It just means the town will petition to the state to start the process of eventually allowing those groups to do so.
Morons. A town run by complete morons. Every board. Every committee. A town controlled by a small but overzealous, over-involved, virtue signaling, “progressive” group of radicals. And it’s only allowed to happen because the majority of town residents are uninvolved, disinterested and clueless to what their elected “leaders” are doing.
I disagree with the notion that allowing people to vote at a young age will result in better voters, who take this responsibility seriously. And in fact, it might just do the opposite. People are more likely to take voting seriously 1) if their parents do so, and 2) if they have classes in US history and civics that make these topics come alive for them, so that they understand at gut level just how important it is to vote intelligently.
Yes, I believe anyone who is a permanent resident should be able to vote in town elections. As for younger voters? The best way for them to participate would be to be informed. As an adult, I know that it takes a lot of work to familiarize myself with the candidates, their backgrounds, and the complicated issues that will be before them. My husband relies on me to do the research because it’s rather a heavy lift. I expect that a lot of voters don’t do what I do, and that’s their choice, but I would not expect high school students to do it, or to be informed about every issue in town (especially as many of them will be planning to go away for college). There are many ways for high school students to be involved, even heavily involved, if they choose to do so. I also believe that civics is so important that it should be a required class for all students, throughout high school. It is even more important for parents to discuss issues with their kids, and get their feedback. From personal experience, I can tell you that I was a very informed 16 year old back in the day, because my parents talked politics at home. But, I was not informed enough to vote. Waiting until the age of 18 to vote is not a hardship; not being able to vote on local issues when one is a permanent US resident, is.