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Leader Donato urges changes to absentee eligibility and political designation rules
Summary
Leader Donato testified in support of two bills: one (H.822) to revise physical‑disability criteria for absentee voting to conform with the Americans with Disabilities Act and another (H.824) to raise signature thresholds and provide a process to dissolve inactive political designations.
Leader Donato told the Joint Committee on Election Laws he supports H.822 to change the physical‑disability requirement for absentee voting and H.824 to reform political designation rules.
“We are seeking this change because the Massachusetts office of disability and regional disability rights organization have determined that the current provision is inconsistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and could become subject to litigation,” Leader Donato said of H.822.
Donato also described H.824, which would increase the threshold to create a political designation and add a mechanism for administrative dissolution. He said the current rule allows a petition of 50 registered voters to create a political designation, which has led to more than 25 designations in Massachusetts with fewer than 46,000 registered voters combined. He said “the majority have less than 100 registered voters” and that the proposed reform would require designations to register at least 1% of the total number of registered voters within a two‑year period or be administratively dissolved.
Donato asked the committee to review both measures and consider favorable reports. The committee did not vote on the measures at the hearing and accepted brief oral testimony; written testimony was offered for the record.
