You may have heard something about the lawsuit being filed against the City of Lowell’s all at-large local voting system for City Council and School Committee. You might be wondering, why a lawsuit? And how is an all citywide at-large local government discriminatory? You can download this PDF, which answers a lot of these questions.
As a long time observer of city politics, I know that running an at-large campaign citywide is daunting, very difficult, and expensive. It’s prohibitive for many, especially people who come from different backgrounds such as immigrant communities. The outcome of many decades of an at-large system speak for themselves; with few exceptions, the city is largely represented by white, mostly male electeds residing in very specific areas of the city.
Download the PDF below to get more answers!
10 Things to Know about At-Large Voting in Lowell and the Voting Rights Lawsuit
For more info you can read the Ropes & Gray announcement on their website, as well as the text of the lawsuit (translations in Spanish and Khmer).
–Lynne