2020 United States Census updates

From City Clerk Janet Rowe: Good News:  We have until October 5^th to keep spreading the word to answer your Census!  Our Census Partners have 9 MQA (mobile questionnaire assistance) stations set up around the City for the weekend.

Two of the biggest ones will be at the Farmer’s Market location and the Lynn Community Health Center, both downtown Lynn.  If we do get an additional extension to the end of October, we will have more MQA’s including ones at the School Department (which have been very successful). The times and locations are as follows:

Lynn Community Health Center:  269 Union Street

• Friday, October 2nd:  9am-1pm and 2pm-6pm
• Saturday, October 3rd:  8am-1pm and 2pm-6pm
• Sunday, October 4th:  1pm-5pm
• Monday, October 5th: 8:30am-12:30pm and 1;30pm-5:30pm

Vitoria’s Market: 100 Union Street

• Friday, October 2nd: 5pm-7pm
• Saturday, October 3rd:  11am – 1pm

Farmer’s Market location: 31 Exchange Street

• Sunday, October 4th:  Times to be determined

More Good News:  I was able to find our response rate for 2010, it was 61.9%.  We have exceeded that number as we are at 63.9 today!  Enumerators will be going door-to-door through October 5^th and will continue if we get the extension.  Every extra day we get will help!

Watch LCTV’s PSA about the importance of the Census by clicking here.

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From Lynn Census Partner Jen Mau of the Mira Coaltition: The Census continues but without a clear end date.  This morning, in the National Urban League case, Judge Koh issued an order that the October 5th deadline set by the Census Bureau is in violation of the Preliminary Injunction. She also vacated today’s hearing and set a conference for next Tuesday (10/6) at 5pm ET.

It is still unknown if the federal government will comply with the preliminary injunction and change the date and communicate appropriately, so the Census continues but without a clear end date. Let’s continue to amplify the urgency of the census and get as many folks counted as soon as possible.

Given the uncertainty, please continue to do the amazing outreach that you’re doing and emphasize the message to “Take the Census TODAY, without delay!”

For those who want some more details about the order (along with a link to the order):

Early this morning, in the National Urban League v. Ross case before the Northern District of California, Judge Koh issued an order that:

• CLARIFIES the scope of the Court’s Sep. 24 Preliminary Injunction (PI): “until Defendants cure all the legal defects identified in the Injunction Order,” the prior census deadlines of “October 31… for data collection and April 30, 2021 for reporting” are reinstated;
• IDENTIFIES that by selecting October 5 as a new response deadline for the census, the government violated the PI order;
• WARNS that the Court “will subject [the government] to sanctions or contempt proceedings if [they] violate the Injunction Order again” [emphasis added];
• ORDERS the government to issue, on October 2, 2020, “a new text message to all Census Bureau employees notifying them of the Court’s Injunction Order, stating that the October 5, 2020 ‘target date’ is not operative, and stating that data collection operations will continue through October 31, 2020. On October 2, 2020, after the text message is sent, Defendants shall file a copy of the text message with the Court;” and
• ORDERS Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham to file, by Monday, October 5, 2020 at 5 pm ET, “a declaration under penalty of perjury that unequivocally confirms Defendants’ ongoing compliance with the Injunction Order and details the steps Defendants have taken to prevent future violations of the Injunction Order.”

Watch 2020 Census PSAs in multiple languages from the
Mira Coalition by clicking here.

Fare Gate Upgrades To Begin October 1

Upgrades are the first step in Fare Transformation journey.

The MBTA today announced the start of upgrades to its fare gates, introducing the initial changes as the T begins replacing its aging fare collection system.

Starting Thursday, October 1, the MBTA begins to upgrade fare gates within the rapid transit system. The work begins at Oak Grove Station on the Orange Line and advances throughout the remainder of the system through December.

“We are pleased to achieve this small but meaningful milestone in which our riders start using the technology that is the foundation of our new fare collection program,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “This is a first step in providing the service our customers expect and deserve, and I am happy that our riders will start to see the improvements we’ve been talking about for some time.”

The MBTA anticipates completing 50 percent of the fare gate upgrades by December 2020 with the remaining gates expected to be completed by late 2021. Once a fare gate is upgraded, it will only accept CharlieCards and paper CharlieTickets will no longer be accepted at the upgraded gates. All stations will continue to have fare gates that accept CharlieTickets throughout this transition. Paper CharlieTickets are expected to be phased out in late 2021.

These upgrades are necessary to ensure the reliability of the existing fare collection system. They will also allow for the introduction of the new tappable CharlieTicket, which will be introduced in early 2021.

CharlieCards will continue to be available at stations and be distributed by Transit Ambassadors. CharlieCards are also available through many community partners, including the neighborhood branches of the Boston Public Library, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, Boston City Hall, and city and town halls in Arlington, Cambridge, Chelsea, Lynn, Malden, Quincy, Revere, Salem, Watertown, and Winthrop.

Replacing the fare collection system is part of the MBTA’s $8 billion Building a Better T program, which is the T’s modernization effort aimed at replacing subway fleets, improving stations, and upgrading tracks, signals and switches; reinventing its bus system to reflect changing demographics; and bringing all assets to a state of good repair.

For more information, visit mbta.com/faretransformation where updates are provided regularly, or connect with the T on Twitter @MBTA, Facebook /TheMBTA, or Instagram @theMBTA.

LCTV Election Coverage update

LCTV has been working behind the scenes since the Primary to ensure that Lynners are educated about the candidates and ballot questions we will be voting on when you step into the voting booth on November 3rd.

We reached out to the campaigns running for the U.S. Senate & 6th Congressional District seats, both contested races that represent Lynn. We also reached out to both the yes and no sides for the 2 ballot questions that will be on the ballot. We have conducted interviews with all who responded, although not every campaign responded to our requests.

Voting update from Lynn’s City Clerk & Chief of Elections Janet Rowe

Just an FYI that our office has started to send out “vote by mail ballots” this week.  In the September Primary, we sent out over 10 thousand ballots to voters who requested vote by mail ballots.  Currently we are processing  over 13 thousand requests to date.  I anticipate we will have many more early votes including the ballots from “Early Voting” which will begin on Saturday October 17 and will run straight through October 30^th.   The 2 weekend hours will be from 8am – 2pm and the weekly hours will be during regular business hours.

The official ballot box is outside the building (thank you Mayor) for everyone’s convenience.  We will be monitoring it 3x per day.

Many thanks to our IT Department Head Peter Efstratios and IT specialist Steve Martin for processing all these ballots through the mail system and delivering them to the Post Office in the Primary and now again for the Final Election.  They are an essential part of our Election team in getting these out as quickly as we produce them.   Thanks again Pete and Steve!

Historically, the Presidential Election brings out more voters than any other race.  Back in 2016, over 65% of the Lynn voters came out.  Currently we have 54,307 voters in Lynn, so with the 3 options to vote ( by Mail, Early voting in person, at the Polls on Election Day), we anticipate we will have a large turnout.  Please share these 3 options with your family and friends and also if you plan on mailing in your ballot, you can find out when we sent it to you and when we received it back from you at www.TrackMyBallotMA.com/.

Thanks for sharing and don’t forget to vote!

Be kind, be well, stay safe,

Janet L. Rowe
City Clerk – Election Chief

From Mayor McGee’s office:  The Lynn Public Health Department has confirmed that as of today, the number of active, confirmed positive COVID-19 cases is 400 with 12 new cases today. 4,470 Lynn residents have recovered and 118 have died. The total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Lynn since March 21, 2020, including those who have died and recovered, is 4,988. Please visit the City of Lynn COVID-19 Data Dashboard which is updated daily.