A federal judge this spring blocked the Department of Justice's efforts to obtain Massachusetts voter data, citing a lack of justification and privacy concerns. Now, state lawmakers are weighing whether to limit what data the state does share with the federal government. While the state has historically exchanged some voter information with federal agencies, State House News Service reporter Sam Drysdale explains that historical data is different than the data the DOJ recently requested.
Sam Drysdale, SHNS: Yeah, Massachusetts has historically shared with federal agencies some limited non-sensitive data about voters, such as registrant names and addresses. And that data is important because it goes into systems like the electronic Registration Information Center, which is a multi-state compact designed to keep the rolls current by cross-referencing data across state lines.
What's different now is that the Trump administration's DOJ has requested much broader data. Earlier this year, as part of what they're describing as a non citizen voting investigation that includes date of birth and other identifying information that can be cross-referenced with other federal databases and enable matching to check for citizenship status. And that's what Massachusetts Democrats are now trying to set up a firewall against.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: And there's also ongoing federal litigation that could exclude non-citizens from census counts. That's something advocates warn could cost Massachusetts a congressional seat and federal funding. How might a change like that affect the state's long standing strategy of encouraging full census participation?
Right. Massachusetts hovers perennially near the threshold of losing a congressional seat. It lost one after the 2010 census, and non citizens, including permanent legal residents, visa holders and undocumented immigrants. They tend to be largely concentrated in Greater Boston, Worcester, Springfield. Excluding them from the apportionment counts could trigger another seat loss, dropping the delegation from 9 to 8, and that could lose, likely a Democrat seat in Congress.
And there's also an issue of trust. After Massachusetts has spent years and considerable state resources telling immigrant communities that census participation is safe and in their interest.
Moving on... the Massachusetts House has passed that $63.4 billion budget amid economic warnings, setting up the next phase of negotiations with the Senate. As the Senate prepares to release its budget Tuesday, what key differences are we watching for?
Even though the annual budget is the largest investment the state makes all year, there's also a lot of policy in it. And the House added a lot of interesting policy to their budget that I think we'll be particularly interested in looking at. Some of those pieces are a second chance for long tenured teachers to opt into an enhanced retirement program, an expansion of the Department of Transportation Board, and expanding the availability and variety of routine pediatric vaccines. We'll be looking at those as well as, of course, the bottom line.
And while that's all on lawmakers minds, a lot of folks are also wondering, can the Red Sox actually contend this season? Or is it another rebuild?
It's a great question. Uh, anything can happen! But I will say, I don't think it's very common for a winning season to start with this record. That's all I'll say.
As we moved into May, the Red Sox were 12 and 19 on the season, tied for the most pre-May losses in franchise history of 126 seasons.
