The City’s Director of Elections and Census, Will Rosenberry, appeared before the City Council at Tuesday’s meeting to present a comprehensive memo in response to a handful of past city council motions related to the coming city election.

That election will be held on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. State law requires this election to be held on “the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.”

If a preliminary election is needed, the Director recommended it be held on Tuesday, September 9, 2025. The final say on that date comes from the council, but I assume that will be the date. A preliminary is required in any district in which the number of candidates is more than double the number of seats to be filled. That means in a district race where there is a single seat, a preliminary will be needed if there are three or more candidates whereas in the at large race where there are three seats to be filled, a preliminary will be needed if there are seven or more candidates. A preliminary election need not be citywide; if just one district has the required number of candidates, the preliminary election would just be held in that district.

The memo next addressed early voting where a voter may cast their vote in person at a designated time and place prior to election day. State law requires the city to provide 14 straight days of early voting in state and federal elections, but whether to offer early voting in city elections and for how long is up to the city’s Election Commission and City Council. The city has offered early voting in recent city elections, so I expect that will be the case again this year.

Where early voting will be held is an issue. In the past, the city has used either the Mayor’s Reception Room in City Hall or the Senior Center on Broadway. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage of City Hall is its proximity to the Election Office which makes it easier to staff and secure. The downside of City Hall is limited parking nearby and accessibility that relies on a single elevator that is many years old. The advantage of the Senior Center is that it has ample onsite parking, and the polling place can be on ground level so accessibility is better. The downside is that using the Senior Center as a polling place disrupts the Center’s ability to provide lunch and programs for the seniors who use the place. This is another decision ultimately up to the Council.

In addition to early voting, residents may vote by mail in every election. This is the equivalent of the old concept of “absentee ballots” although under the old law, there were very limited circumstances in which voting by mail was allowed. Now, no reason is needed although someone wishing to vote by mail must at some point apply to do that through the election office. (As a committed voter-by-mail, I’ll write more on that in a coming newsletter.)

Two other issues were discussed: The possible relocation of the polling place for the downtown district and the location of a ballot drop box which may be used by those voting by mail. Due to the ongoing construction at Lowell High which has long been the downtown polling place, using LHS does not seem feasible this year, so the city is looking at other options. Regarding the drop box, the threat of malicious damage to such boxes makes their security uppermost in the minds of election officials. That has meant moving the box into the lobby of the police station, which is always accessible, but there is some interest in finding another location for it. Nothing definite has been decided on either issue.

Rosenberry’s memo is available on the city website.

Tuesday’s discussion was entirely procedural. Left mostly unsaid was the question of turnout. Consider these numbers:

• Population of Lowell – 115,000 people
• Number of registered voters – 75,000
• Turnout in 2024 presidential election – 34,000
• Turnout in 2022 state election – 21,000
• Turnout in 2019 city election (the last under the old system) – 11,000
• Turnout in 2021 city election (the first under the new system) – 12,000
• Turnout in 2023 city election (the most recent) – 7,500

The 7,500 votes cast in 2023 were the fewest in a city election since at least the Civil War. It’s unwise to draw broad inferences from a single data point so I won’t now speculate on the reasons why turnout may have been so low in the last city election. However, that fact makes the turnout this coming November perhaps the most important thing to be decided by the election. If that turnout number does not bounce back above 10,000, it will warrant a thorough discussion about why so few people feel engaged enough to vote in our local elections.

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Staying with the city election, since the last time I checked, two new council candidates have formed campaign committees with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

On February 3, 2025, Francisco Maldonado of 101 West Jenness Street opened a campaign account. A former Lowell police officer, Maldonado already has an impressive website online. He is running for the District 8 Highlands seat currently held by John Descoteaux.

On March 17, 2025, Jose Cervantes Orozco of 26 Dublin Street opened a campaign account. He is running for the District 7 seat currently held by Paul Ratha Yem.

Also, congratulations to Coalition for a Better Acre on its just-completed two-day Candidate Empowerment and Readiness Training (CERT). A type of “boot camp” for prospective candidates for local office and their campaign managers and treasurers, I participated in both sessions – as a speaker, not as a candidate.

No one mentioned anything about confidentiality, but I’ll leave it to the participants to announce their candidacies on their own schedules. However, I mention this because one vibe I clearly detected was that recent events in Washington are motivating people to get more involved in local politics which is a rare cause for optimism amidst the direness of the past eight weeks.

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Our recent warm spell has me longing to get outdoors, so Tuesday’s presentation on the city’s Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) was timely. Every seven years the city must update its OSRP to remain eligible for relevant state grants. The current OSRP runs from 2019 to 2026, so work is now underway for the next version of the plan.

“Open space” in this context is more than just city parks. It includes conservation land, forest, agricultural land, vacant lots, and brownfield sites. Lowell has more than 700 acres of open space, eight miles of trails, and 90 public parks with 92 percent of residents living within a 10-minute walk of one of those parks.

To formulate the new plan, the city needs input from residents to help shape the city’s priorities with the wants and needs of those who live near the parks. The city’s Planning Department has launched a comprehensive OSRP Digital Engagement Station on the city’s website. It features information about the city’s open space, the current OSRP, and a variety of methods for residents to provide input and obtain more information.

Back in 1845 when Lowell was less than 20 years old, the city purchased two large parcels from the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, the entity that owned all the canals, the textile mills, and much of the surrounding land. These parcels became the North Common and the South Common. At the time of their acquisition, they were called “the lungs of the city” because they provided much-needed greenspace to people who spent 12 hours per day, six days per week toiling within the city’s mills. Given the effects of climate change and income inequality today, the need for urban green spaces remains as vital now as it was 180 years ago, so please check out the OSRP Engagement Station and make the effort to visit a city park in your neighborhood.

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Here’s a public service announcement, courtesy of WCVB-TV news which last weekend featured a story about an elderly couple who owned a car, but it was only in the husband’s name. He died with the car still only in his name. Massachusetts General Law chapter 90D, section 15A, states that in this case, the surviving spouse would automatically be deemed to be the co-owner of the car and is able to obtain a certificate of title in their own name. All that is required is for the surviving spouse to provide the RMV with the old title to the car.

The WCVB story exposed a major caveat to that law. If the car was financed and the loan remains outstanding, the current title is held by the lender which will not release it to the surviving spouse until the loan is paid in full. Without that title, the surviving spouse cannot get a new title in their name. Without a new title in their name, they cannot insure the car. In the case featured in the news story, the surviving spouse had the funds to pay off the loan and get a new title and, perhaps most importantly, continued insurance coverage, but not everyone would have the financial means to do that.

To avoid the risk of this predicament, if you are married and buying a car with the purchase financed, be sure that both spouses are made co-owners of the vehicle. If you already own a financed car that is only in the name of one spouse, be aware that if that spouse suddenly passes away, the survivor will need to pay off the loan before being able to obtain a new title.

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Congratulations to Lowell’s Steve O’Connor (a frequent contributor to this site) whose essay, “Irish – and American – like me” appeared in last Sunday’s Boston Globe.