Petition for a Special Law re: An Act Granting the City of Boston the Authority to Provide Legal Voting Rights in Municipal Elections for City of Boston Residents Aged 16 and 17 Years Old.
All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. Docket docket 0264 has passed. Matters recently heard for possible action. Mr.. Please read Docket 0185 Police. Numbers 0185 Petition for a special law relative to enact granting the City of Boston the authority to provide legal voting rights in municipal elections for the city of Boston. Residents age 16 and 17 years old. The Chair recognizes. Councilor Royal Chair of the Committee on Government Operations Council. Royal. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. On Tuesday, March 14th, the committee held a hearing on docket 0185. This matter was introduced by councilors Maria and Councilor Bach. I want to thank the lead sponsors for introducing this matter and for my council colleagues that were able to join us Councilor Braden, Councilor Fernandez Anderson, Councilor Laura, Councilor Louise and Councilor Flynn , Councilor Wirral and Councilor Flaherty. I also want to thank the Elections Department and our panel of advocates for their time and participation. This home rule petition would authorize the city of Boston to allow any individual age, 16 or 17 who was a resident of Boston to be able to vote as long as they are eligible under state law for other all other qualifications other than age. These individuals would be added to a separate list of voters to be established and maintained by the Board of Election Commissioners and be allowed to vote for local office and ballot questions. This would be done by having them fill out an alternative registration form. The Board of Elections would be responsible for associated costs. The petition would also grant the Board the authority to implement regulations associated with this Act. When the individual turns 18, they would be removed from the separate list and informed that they must register to vote in accordance with state law. During the hearing, we heard testimony from the Elections Department on the logistical details that would be needed to address the implement and implement this petition. Including restrictions around how information of 16 year olds would need to be safeguarded. The Elections Department also shared that since implementation of pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds in 2020, the Department has processed a total of 3720 applications, showing that there is a high interest in electoral participation among those who have not yet turned 18. Both the administration and the advocates were able to speak to practices from other cities, states and countries that have implemented similar electoral policies, as well as the impact this legislation would have on expanding the electorate in Boston this time. This conversation serves as a good starting point for this home roll petition, and I look forward to more detailed conversations about the language in future working sessions. As Chair, I recommended, this matter ought to reign out to remain in committee. Thank you, Ms.. President. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Roya, would anyone else like to speak on this matter that she recognizes? Councilman here. Councilman, here. You have the floor. I just wanted to thank the chair for hosting the hearing and also just want to uplift massage rare, who is one of the young one of the young people that participated in the hearing. She took some time from school to participate with us, which goes to show how important it is to ensure that we recognize that the reason why we're pushing for this is that young people want to be engaged, they are mature and understand what is at stake for them. They're the ones that are working, paying taxes, oftentimes working 2 to 3 jobs just to help support their families. So we need to do right by them and making sure that we support this effort. And I really want to thank my colleagues who participated and for their support around this initiative as well. So thank you so very much. Thank you constantly here. The chair recognizes council block. Council block. You have the floor. Thank you so much, Mr. President. I also want to thank the chair and councilwoman here and all our panelists who came and the councilors. I think that, you know, this is a docket where I think we've already heard a majority of councilors and support we heard support from the elections commission. We had really good, tangible feedback from the Elections Commission about what they would need to implement it most effectively. So I'm looking forward to the working session under the auspices of the Chair. But I just want to emphasize, you know, we we had a colleague from Scotland come and join the meeting virtually in Scotland. 16 and 17 year olds have been voting for almost a decade in their local elections. And and it's been a huge driver of youth participation. It has not upended the world, but it has allowed a lot of people to really get involved in democratic civic activism. And as was brought raised on the call, when we involve our young people, it also means involving a lot of our marginalized communities. It often drives things in a direction of economic justice. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why we want to make voices and immigrant families sometimes as the only thought that you might have access to for now. And so just really want to stress that we're looking forward to partnering with a chair and making this something that the council is able to support in the near term. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor. BLOCK Anyone else like to speak on this matter? Docket 0185 will remain in committee. Docket 0291 has been withdrawn from the agenda now at this time. Mr. Kirby, please read docket 0312, please.