Chelsea Collaborative Wins Constitutional Case On Voting Registration

By Seth Daniel

Last fall, when Chelsea’s Edma Ortiz began to get increasingly concerned about the presidential election and what was at stake for immigrants and the Latino community, she finally found the time to get to Chelsea City Hall to register to vote in the election.

However, an irregular work schedule that required her to work odd hours during weekdays, and the death of her mother that took her to Puerto Rico for nearly a month in October, delayed her trip to City Hall.

Getting on a plane Oct. 19 to go back to Boston, she remembered thinking that she needed to go register for the election.

On Oct. 20, she went to the Chelsea Collaborative to get the details on how to fill out the documents.

However, she found out she was one day late – the cutoff for registrations was on Oct. 19, many weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

With that news, the life-long U.S. Citizen was disqualified to cast her vote in what was one of the most important elections in modern history.

That and many other similar stories led the Collaborative to file a lawsuit last year challenging the voter registration cutoff – and this week the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in their favor.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled this week that the voter registration law in Massachusetts – which calls for a cutoff for voting registration several weeks before any election – infringes on the rights of voters and should be reconsidered.

The case was brought by the Chelsea Collaborative and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

“We are extremely happy with the outcome on this case,” said Gladys Vega of the Collaborative. “We strongly feel that this law has to change and we are not saying this should have anything to do with same-day voter registration. What it should have everything to do with is U.S. Citizens being able to have their vote.”

The ACLU said it was a victory for democracy in the state.

“This is a major victory for democracy in Massachusetts, as the court agreed that the arbitrary 20-day voter registration cutoff law is unconstitutional and disenfranchises thousands of potential voters throughout the Commonwealth every election,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU Massachusetts. “As the Trump administration is seeking to limit access to the ballot, Massachusetts should lead nationwide efforts to ensure that everyone has a right to vote. As champions for freedom, the ACLU of Massachusetts is committed to working together with other advocates and the Massachusetts Legislature to protect and expand access to the ballot.”

Vega said the cutoff limits force people to focus on the election in October and September – times when people aren’t paying as much attention.

However, she said when people really want to vote, they find that they no longer can do so.

“I’ve had people come down with the card to register well before the election and we had to turn them away,” she said. “It was too late. One man tore the card up in front of me and said, ‘Why do I even bother.’ That shouldn’t happen…We have to register voters at a time when no one cares about it rather that at a peak time when people start caring about voting and can no longer participate.”

She said one witness in their case before the SJC testified that more than 6,500 voters had been turned away after the cutoff.

She also said technology has come to a point where a cutoff so many days ahead of time is not needed.

“Enough was enough,” she said. “We felt that this was against the Constitutional right to vote. They don’t need the processing time and documentation time any more. Things are done so much quicker that shouldn’t be a problem now.”

The Court has instructed the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Bill Galvin, to craft a law that will be more accommodating.

It will then have to be passed by the State Legislature.

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