Incorrect city census forms - wrong ward and precinct numbers

[ron_newman]

I received a City Census form in today's mail with the wrong Ward and Precinct printed on it. I live in Ward 6, Precinct 1 but the form says Ward 7, Precinct 3. Apparently this happened to a lot of other folks -- here's an official city press release about the mixup. John Roderick also mentioned it in a posting at the Somerville News website.

In any event, you need to return this form to preserve your voting rights, correcting your name or address if necessary. I guess you don't have to correct the wrong ward and precinct numbers if you don't want to.

Comments

voting

[cos]

Although the city census says if you don't answer it you may be removed from the voter rolls, in practice what they do is leave you on, marked "inactive", and ask you to show ID at the polls the next time you vote, as if you're a new registrant.

If they were to drop you from the rolls, of course you could just re-register. Your voting rights are definitely preserved - not answering the city census won't make you lose those rights. It'll just create some administrative hoops for you to jump through again.