Lowell Director of Elections William Rosenberry
Earlier this evening, WCVB-TV (Ch. 5) ran a news story listing Lowell as one of eight Massachusetts municipalities that will have representatives from the Department of Justice monitoring the election. The Bay State is one of 27-states the DOJ will keep an eye on in total.
But despite fears that certain swing states throughout the country could become voting battlegrounds, officials in the Mill City say a visit from the feds is just business as usual.
The DOJ’s presence is nothing out of the ordinary on election day,” Director of Elections William Rosenberry tells InsideLowell. “They were present for the September 3 Primary election and will be here again on November 5 to observe compliance with Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which Lowell is subject to given the large number of voters who are non-English speakers. We welcome their presence.”
Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act was added in 1975 and provides that “whenever any State or political subdivision [covered by the section] provides registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or information relating to the electoral process, including ballots, it shall provide them in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language.”
City Manager Tom Golden echoed Rosenberry’s commentary and seemed pleased with the turnout thus far, as in person early voting concluded earlier today.
“As of close of business today we have had close to 12,000 votes from mail in to early voting,” said Manager Golden. “As an immigrant community, Lowell is a welcoming City and we understand that Democracy is vital to our continued growth and prosperity. “We have a professional staff and we would appreciate any additional ideas and input that the DOJ could offer to make our voting system more transparent and welcoming to all”.
Polls open in Lowell at 7am Tuesday morning and close at 8pm. Any outstanding mail in ballots must be postmarked by November 5 and and received by Friday, November 8.
