{"id":215,"date":"2021-05-19T13:30:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T13:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press-releases\/marquee-voting-reform-law-gets-public-hearing\/"},"modified":"2021-05-19T13:30:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T13:30:48","slug":"marquee-voting-reform-law-gets-public-hearing","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/press\/marquee-voting-reform-law-gets-public-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Marquee Voting Reform Law Gets Public Hearing"},"template":"","class_list":["post-215","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Experts, advocates, and community organizers testify in support of the VOTES Act to improve Massachusetts elections. The bill has strong momentum with over 100 cosponsors in the state legislature.\u00a0","featured_image":6117,"press_type":146,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7814}"],"related_issues":[100,109,462],"related_work":false,"location":24},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><i>Experts, advocates, and community organizers testify in support of the VOTES Act to improve Massachusetts elections.<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BOSTON -- \u201cAn Act Fostering Voter Opportunities Trust, Equity, and Security,\u201d better known as the VOTES Act, received widespread support from advocates and lawmakers during a hearing today. The bill, which was lauded by a range of supporters as being a comprehensive and meaningful way to improve elections in Massachusetts, has strong momentum with over 100 cosponsors in the state legislature.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Joint Committee on Election Laws heard from advocates and experts about the many ways the VOTES Act (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/malegislature.gov\/Bills\/192\/HD1536\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">H.805<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\/<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/malegislature.gov\/Bills\/192\/SD1002\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">S.459<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">) will reduce barriers to voting and increase voter turnout, all while making democracy more accessible and equitable. The committee also heard from elections administrators who have implemented and administered these reforms successfully in other states.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>The hearing is being streamed live, and a full recording will be available later at the same location:\u00a0 <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/malegislature.gov\/Events\/Hearings\/Detail\/3725\"><b>https:\/\/malegislature.gov\/Events\/Hearings\/Detail\/3725<\/b><\/a><b>\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bill includes mail-in voting, expanded early voting, Same Day Registration, improvements to jail-based voting, and various election infrastructure improvements. The bill\u2019s chief sponsors, Senator Cindy Creem and Representative John Lawn, also testified in support.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today\u2019s hearing on the VOTES Act clearly demonstrated how its provisions will increase voter participation and modernize our election registration process, while maintaining an efficient and secure election process,\u201d said <\/span><b>Senator Cynthia Creem (D-Newton).<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt\u2019s critical that we ensure reforms that already worked for voters, and that voters expect will be available to them again, are in place for our upcoming municipal elections and future state election,\u201d said <\/span><b>Representative John Lawn (D-Watertown)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bill is being championed by the Election Modernization Coalition which organized turnout for the hearing and weighed in on the record. <\/span><b>Janet Domenitz, Executive Director of MASSPIRG <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said, \u201cThe VOTES Act will bring Massachusetts into the 21st century by increasing access to voting, expanding\u00a0 equity, and updating systems which ensure accuracy of our elections.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advocates stressed the success of mail voting in 2020, the importance of expanding access to the ballot for low-income voters, voters of color, youth, and first-time voters with reforms like Same Day Registration, and the need to modernize outdated aspects of the Massachusetts electoral system. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Gateway Cities and Boston, only 66.3 % of residents cast their ballot in the 2020 election, with 35.7% of ballots cast by mail -- compared to the 81% voter turnout with 44.5% of mailed ballots in majority white municipalities,\u201d said <\/span><b>Beth Huang, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Voter Table<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u201cThe VOTES Act would lead to more equitable and accessible elections.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cNow is the time to think big. While making mail-in and early in-person voting permanent is a great step forward, we must also implement Same Day Registration and make critical improvements to election infrastructure,\u201d said <\/span><b>Geoff Foster, Executive Director of Common Cause Massachusetts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cA true participatory democracy should be the goal for the Commonwealth, but lived experiences of communities of color have shown that they need voting systems that are more flexible and accessible,\u201d said <\/span><b>Sophia Hall, Supervising Attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u201cThe VOTES Act is the best path forward to serve those constituencies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt is crucial for Massachusetts to set an example as a state moving to increase\u2014not decrease\u2014access to the polls and secure elections. The times demand that Massachusetts goes on record as enhancing the ability of all citizens to vote,\u201d said <\/span><b>Pattye Comfort, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts.<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEvery eligible voter should be able to cast a ballot,\u201d said <\/span><b>Rahsaan Hall, Racial Justice Program Director at the ACLU of Massachusetts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u201cWe need to establish Same Day Registration to strip away barriers that particularly impact first-time voters, low-income workers, and voters of color. And we must improve ballot access for the thousands of incarcerated people who maintain a legal right to vote, but who are disenfranchised by systemic neglect. If the legislature fails to act on these provisions, Massachusetts will not be doing enough to ensure that every eligible voter, especially voters of color, can vote in practice.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Our democracy must be made as accessible and inclusive as possible,\" said <\/span><b>Alex Psilakis, Policy and Communications Manager at MassVOTE<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \"The VOTES Act takes numerous steps to make this possible, implementing key reforms like permanent vote by mail, expanded early in-person voting, same day voter registration, and more. Through this legislation, we may empower the Commonwealth's BIPOC, low-income, and immigrant voters, who currently face unjust barriers to the polls.\"<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advocates\u2019 message was clear: the bill that the committee releases for a House and Senate floor vote must be comprehensive and address the needs of all eligible voters across the Commonwealth.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Election Modernization Coalition is composed of the ACLU of Massachusetts, Common Cause Massachusetts, Lawyers for Civil Rights, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, MASSPIRG, MassVOTE, and the Massachusetts Voter Table.<\/span><\/i><\/p>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marquee Voting Reform Law Gets Public Hearing - 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