Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Honorable Daniel J. Ryan, House Chair
The Honorable John F. Keenan, Senate Chair
Joint Committee on Election Laws
State House, Boston
Delivered electronically
Dear Chair Ryan, Chair Keenan, and Distinguished Members of the Committee,
On behalf of cities and towns across the Commonwealth, the MMA is writing to respectfully ask you to protect municipal decision-making on local precinct lines, and ask you to oppose H. 708, An Act relative to reprecincting.
H. 708 would require the creation of new federal and state legislative districts before municipalities are able to redraw their local precincts using recent U.S. Census numbers. The bill would then require cities and towns to shape their precincts based on the new state and federal legislative districts. Reprecincting occurs every 10 years, as communities use the decennial federal census numbers to rebalance precinct lines.
Under current state law, cities and towns update their precinct lines first, and then state lawmakers use municipally drawn precincts as the building blocks for the state’s redistricting process. Forcing communities to shape their precincts around new state-set boundaries would lead to significant problems for communities with multiple precincts, especially those with Representative Town Meeting, as well as municipalities that elect officials in districts based on wards or precincts. State-drawn legislative district lines could unknowingly divide communities of interest or create sections that are too large or small to match the required number of precincts or districts, leading to disarray. This is why cities and towns must go first in the process. We know that Secretary of Commonwealth William Galvin and the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association have voiced similar concerns regarding efforts to change the well-established practice that keeps precinct decisions local.
Cities and towns are in the best position to take into account neighborhoods and racial and ethnic communities of interest when they draw precincts lines. They are acutely aware of new or proposed developments as well as the geographic limits that can form boundaries between neighborhoods. In addition, municipalities must hold at least one local public hearing as part of the process, ensuring adequate local public input. If the state draws districts first, it could unknowingly split neighborhoods and divide communities who wish to be connected and represented in their local government and municipal elections.
We understand the unique pressures and time constraints that resulted in the 2021 reprecincting legislation, creating a one-time parallel track and truncated process for drawing municipal, state and federal lines in time for the 2022 election. And we greatly appreciate the attention of the Legislature to mitigate the impact on all stakeholders for the 2022 election cycle. However, this change was precipitated by the federal government’s delay in the 2020 census, which was deeply impacted and complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. And despite some municipalities having experience with dividing precincts into subprecincts from this one-time change, making a permanent process change is unnecessary and would create cascading complications for voters.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful attention to these very important local government concerns regarding H. 708. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to have your office contact me or MMA Senior Executive and Legislative Director Dave Koffman at dkoffman@mma.org or (617) 426-7272, ext. 122, at any time.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
MMA Executive Director & CEO