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Brockton elections official urges one-year residency rule for local candidates
Summary
Cynthia Hogan, Brockton elections director, told the Joint Committee on Election Laws that the city needs a one-year domicile requirement for candidates to prevent people from using business addresses to run for office.
Cynthia Hogan, executive director of elections for the city of Brockton, told the Joint Committee on Election Laws she supports a change requiring people to live in Brockton for at least one year before running for local office.
"I'm here because I am for changing the I want to have the people that are running for office live in the city for a year," Hogan said, describing multiple instances in her 23 years on the job where candidates used business addresses or property they owned in Brockton to claim residency.
Hogan said that because some candidates own property, it can be difficult for the elections office to remove them from the voter roll even when local staff believe they do not actually live at the claimed address. She gave examples: one person "was claiming to live in the basement of his restaurant," she said, and another registrant the elections office checked with a landlord and found the person lived elsewhere and therefore could not run.
Hogan said a residency requirement would make candidates "a viable candidate" who "care about the city because they're there to take care of the city." She told the committee her city council had unanimously approved a local change that prompted the request for state action.
Committee members asked about enforcement and what prevents election officials from removing ineligible registrants; Hogan explained limits where property ownership complicates domicile inquiries. The committee did not take formal action on the matter during the session.
