Voter registration may become easier and more accessible if a plan put forward by the city to do so can be fashioned and implemented.

By Jim Clark

A resolution to find ways to make voter registration more accessible and making voting itself easier for high school students was put forward and approved at the latest regular meeting of the Somerville Board of Alderman last Thursday.

The resolution, put forward by Ward 3 Alderman Ben Ewen-Campen, asks that the City Solicitor draft an ordinance relating to voter registration accessibility, which would require voter registration forms to be available and prominently displayed at all Somerville Public Libraries, public-facing Somerville Public School facilities for eligible students and their parents or guardians, and the Somerville Traffic and Parking Department, and would allow high school students to arrive late to school on any election day provided that they present proof of voting.

Speaking in favor of the resolution, Ewen-Campen said, “I believe that we should be pushing for 100 percent voter turnout. I think this has always been a major issue with municipal elections. I think this means things like automatic voter registration. I think election days should be holidays. I also firmly believe that every single person who lives here should be allowed to vote. That would include, like, my best friend’s wife who has a green card, pays taxes, has the kids, can’t vote.”

Ward 3 Alderman Ben Ewen-Campen is advocating for a system for voter registration similar to one recently put in place by the City of Boston.

Ewen-Campen admitted that the city could not do those particular things at the local level. Instead, he has focused on those things that can be done. “The first idea that I put in was an idea from Seattle to have landlords give voter registration information to tenants” Ewen-Campen said. “Apparently, that requires a Home Rule Petition. Don’t want to do that right now. This is something that Boston has just done, I believe the councilors, they can put it in. And the idea is basically to require voter registration forms to be very kind of prominent at all kind of public facing city places such as schools. When parents come in or students who are old enough to vote.”

According to Ewen-Campen, this would also be done at the Department of Traffic and Parking, at public libraries, etc.

“Another thing that the Boston ordinance does is when people are applying for resident parking passes, it’s an opt out system, basically, in Boston,” said Ewen-Campen. “So it’ll collect your date of birth and it’ll basically automatically give your information to the Election Department, unless you opt out. So that’s what I’m asking for here, is for something similar to that to be drafted.”

The entire Board signed on to and approved the resolution, which will move on to the Legislative Matters Committee for further review and subsequent action.