City Council unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday that would oppose President Donald Trump’s proposal to have federal Secret Service agents patrolling polling locations during the November elections. The bill was proposed by Josh Zakim, a city councilor who represents neighborhoods like Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway and Kenmore Square. He called Trump’s action “an outrageous scare tactic, meant only to intimidate people.”
Zakim, who is the chairman of the Council’s Committee on Civil Rights, referenced a specific stipulation in the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act that would give Trump permission to send federal agents to guard any voting location.
During Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Zakim said that permitting Secret Service members to patrol voting precincts is purposeless.
“I can’t even think of a time in American history where this has been an issue,” Zakim said. “It’s troubling that it’s even being discussed in the halls of Congress … I’ve said over and over again how important I think the right to vote is to ensure all of our other civil rights.”
Zakim told The Daily Free Press that the bill’s provision promotes an obvious agenda from the Trump administration.
“It’s clear that this is a move to intimidate voters by having law enforcement there,” Zakim said. “I don’t think it will get passed, but if it does, we have to stay vigilant and uphold the values of the citizens of Boston and Massachusetts.”
Zakim said it’s important for local officials to stand up to the federal government, just as they have done in the past.
The original bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on June 8 by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul and passed by a 386-41 vote. Nineteen bipartisan secretaries of state sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, criticizing the provision on March 9.
Caren Harris, 55, of Charlestown, said she wants polling stations to adhere to Massachusetts state law, which currently has law enforcement present for public safety only.
“It’s intimidating to potential voters,” Harris said. “It just feels like a police state … environment [rather] than a free democratic society. I think it just adds another level of intimidation.”
William Galvin, the secretary of the Commonwealth, condemned the plan in a March 9 letter to Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, calling the provision “alarming and outrageous.”
“This would be a scenario more likely in a totalitarian regime, not the United States of America,” he wrote.
Debra O’Malley, Galvin’s spokesperson, wrote in an email that Galvin has already taken the appropriate steps to prevent this proposal from becoming law.
“Secretary Galvin is strongly opposed to any changes in federal law that would allow armed agents to have unfettered access to polling locations at the direction of the President of the United States,” O’Malley wrote.
Curt Lewellyn, 43, of Beacon Hill, said the idea of agents patrolling his voting zone presents an undemocratic and unjust condition, calling it “unconstitutional.”
City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who also added her name to the resolution, said the provision could lead to obstruction in future elections.
“The primary point is that this is yet another tactic to undermine our democracy and invites the appearance of interference in our elections,” she said during Wednesday’s meeting. “We cannot allow anyone, foreign or domestic, to erode at the validity and security of our elections again.”
Mission Hill resident Alex Birch said while the presence of Secret Service agents may be threatening, it may preserve public safety.
“There’s definitely two sides of the argument to look at,” Birch, 26, said. “I understand there’s [a] push to keep illegal aliens from voting, but at the same time it creates more [of] an intrusion [to] privacy as well.”
1. I don’t think there are even that many Secret Service agents available.
2. If they show up, and carry arms around a polling place, Boston PD is within their rights to arrest them.