TheCambridge Record
Agenda ItemsPolicy Orders

POR 2020-114

Asked the City Manager to confer with the Election Commission and Board of Election Commissioners to determine the feasibility of universal vote-by-mail for the City of Cambridge

How it started
May 18, 2020 · Proposed by Councillor Nolan, Mayor Siddiqui, Vice Mayor Mallon, and Councillor Carlone: a formal request from the Council to the administration.
What happened
May 18, 2020 · ✅ Order adopted as amended. The Council's request went to the City Manager. (unanimous)

Voted yes (9), unanimous

  • Dennis Carlone
  • Alanna Mallon
  • Marc McGovern
  • Patty Nolan
  • E. Denise Simmons
  • Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler
  • Timothy J. Toomey
  • Quinton Zondervan
  • Sumbul Siddiqui
Roll call of May 18, 2020 · from the council’s minutes · photos: City of Cambridge
What’s next
No response on the docket: nothing has been filed back under this request's number. Answers sometimes arrive as other items; this ledger tracks only this one.
The document Agenda item attachment · 2 pages

WHEREAS Efforts in the Massachusetts Legislature include HD.5075, An Act Ensuring Safe and Participatory 2020 State Elections in Response to COVID-19, which is complementary to S.2612 and is endorsed by over 100 organizations; and

Efforts have accelerated at the national level to ensure that people may exercise their right to vote safely in the fall, with Senator Elizabeth Warren a key sponsor of legislation, now therefore be it

That the City Manager is requested to confer with the Election Commission and Board of Election Commissioners to determine the feasibility of universal vote-by-mail for the City of Cambridge; and be it further

That the Council go on record in support HD.5075 and S.2612 ; and be it further; and be it further

That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward suitably engrossed copies of this policy order to the City's Delegation in the State Legislature on behalf of the entire City Council."

In City Council May 18, 2020. Order Adopted as Amended by a yea and nay vote:- Yeas 9; Nays 0; Absent 0. Attest:- Anthony I. Wilson, City Clerk

A true copy;

ATTEST:- Anthony I. Wilson, City Clerk

🗓 The meeting where this was taken up: May 18, 2020