LYNN — The Charter Review Committee contemplated decreasing the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot as a city councilor or School Committee member during its meeting Wednesday.
Charter Review Committee member Joe Scanlon said he thinks the number of signatures needed should be lowered to encourage more people to run for elected positions.
“We should be making this easier, not harder,” he said.
Scanlon added that there are often not a lot of contested elections in the city anymore.
The current number of signatures required to run for City Council or School Committee is 150. Scanlon said as someone who has run for councilor in the past, he understands it can be hard to knock on doors and get those signatures if someone is on their own.
Charter Review Committee member Pam Edwards said the number of signatures required to be on the ballot could encourage candidates to amp up their campaign tactics.
“Because you’re going to introduce yourself to a lot of new people and it kind of gives you a temperature of your popularity and where maybe you need to work harder,” she said.
Edwards said candidates should not be the only ones collecting signatures, adding that typically, a candidate will have friends or people from their communities help them collect signatures and campaign.
Scanlon contradicted this by saying that ward councilors often do not have large campaigning committees and it can be easier to collect signatures in some wards than others.
Committee member Magnolia Contreras said she wondered how the required number of signatures could affect the diversity of elected officials.
“That’s where I’m wondering the extent to which this serves (or) potentially could serve as a barrier,” she said.
The committee agreed to circle back to the conversation at a later meeting after gaining more information on the present-day campaigning experience for a councilor-at-large from Councilor-at-Large Nicole McClain, who sits on the committee but was not present for the meeting.
