Op/Ed Reader’s Forum City Should Do More to Get Out the Vote

City Should Do More to Get Out the Vote
If you Google “election info quincy ma,” the first page to come up is Quincy’s Election Department, which is part of the City Clerk’s office. The page is all text, with a short description of what the office oversees, along with a list of office staff and the names of four members of the “board of registrars of voters,” the function of which is not explained. The left-side of the page is a text menu with links to election info, much of which takes you to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website. Navigating the links recently took these writers quite a bit of time to find the dates, locations, and deadlines for voting in various ways in our fair city. 

Compare that with what you see when you search the same terms for Cambridge. The top result is the city’s Election Commission page, which boasts image boxes taking you straight away to information prospective voters need, including ballot drop box locations (plural!), newly drawn ward and precinct boundaries following the 2020 census, and voting options for the September 6th primary. Similarly, other cities publicize elections well in advance of election day with sandwich boards placed near busy intersections, while Quincy this year had plans to put up “Vote Today” signs around the city only on election day itself.

We recognize that the City of Quincy is doing some proactive things to get out the vote. Its voter registration table at the recent August Moon Festival was a wonderful initiative. And it advertised the election widely in the Sun. But it could be doing a lot more, especially to reach new voters and those who are not plugged into established local news sources, as well as those whose first language is not English.

Why not put up “VOTE” banners on lampposts around the city ahead of voter registration deadlines and elections, much as Quincy does around holidays such as Flag Day? Why not post regular information about voting on the City’s social media pages? (A search right before the primary showed a single post focused on voting on the City’s Facebook page in the previous year.) Why not send information about voting to recipients of Quincy Public School newsletters and mailings and highlight voting in all city youth programs? Why not create videos of how to vote and post them on city websites and social media pages? Why not do all of these things in English and Chinese (at minimum)?

Most of these initiatives would cost little to no money, but they could have a big impact on voting rates. Only 19.7 percent of eligible voters participated in last Tuesday’s state primary, a slight improvement over the 16.9 percent that voted in last November’s municipal election. And Quincy came in 322nd out of 351 Massachusetts municipalities in voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election. We are the City of Presidents. We can, and must, do better, to encourage civic participation and carry on the city’s proud history as a center of our nation’s democracy.

Quincy Votes! is happy to work with the city - as well as individual residents - to increase voter turnout here. Anyone who wants to help with that effort can email our non-partisan volunteer group at quincyvotes@gmail.com.