Councilor Lara Delivers Her Maiden Speech

Through tears, she spoke about her father who stood outside Doris Bunte Apartments in Egleston Square from seven in the morning to seven in the evening every election day - canvassing his entire building - “stringing together the few English words that he knew and handing out literature to anyone that would take it.” He was convincing them to cast their vote for his daughter.



“...Despite all his hard work, his pride in seeing my name in yard signs all across the district, he never had the chance to see my name on the ballot. My father, a 30 year resident of the City, could not vote for his daughter,” said Councilor Lara.



Immigrants represent 29% of Boston’s population and currently 40,000 immigrants are disenfranchised by current voting laws. Councilor Lara’s hearing order states that, “Excluding such a significant portion of our City’s population from full political participation threatens the health of our democracy and prevents us from building a government from the bottom, a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”



“If we want to create a truly representative municipal government, we must commit to expanding the electorate, deeping our definition of democracy, and ultimately bringing those in the margins to the center,” said Councilor Lara.



As of January 2022, 15 municipalities across the country have restored municipal voting rights to non-citizens, including eleven in Maryland, two in Vermont, San Francisco, California, and New York City.



Her hearing order was referred to the committee of Civil Rights and Immigrant Advancement for further discussion.



Listen to Councilor Lara’s maiden speech.