A protester thought he was heckling Mayor Wu. It wasn’t her.

By Christopher Gavin

A protester on Boston Common on Monday apparently wanted to give Mayor Michelle Wu an earful.

There was only one problem, though: The woman he directed his criticism at wasn’t her.

The demonstrator interrupted a press conference featuring state Rep. Nika Elugardo aimed at boosting support for election-day voter registration, a move supporters say would help raise turnout among Black and Latino voters in Massachusetts, MassLive reports.

The protester, an unidentified man wearing sunglasses and a mask, claimed the American Civil Liberties Union does not care about minority communities and called on officials to probe criminal cases that involved Annie Dookhan, a former state chemist who fabricated evidence in approximately 24,000 cases.

The ACLU requested the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss over 40,000 cases that were impacted by Dookhan in 2016, the outlet reports.

“You’re a political puppet … Why don’t you look into it, Mayor Wu?” the protester said, apparently thinking that Wu was among the group leading the conference. “Look into that — you’ll find the truth, Mayor Wu.”

But the mayor wasn’t there.

Instead, the protester, unknowingly, was leveling his criticism at Beth Huang, executive director of Massachusetts Voter Table, who made light of the incident on Twitter later Monday.

“If only being a 5’4″ Asian woman imbued in me the powers of being mayor of Boston,” Huang wrote.

“I am not @wutrain, but we both support voting rights!” she wrote in a follow-up tweet.

Wu chimed in on Twitter, too.

“We should make some good trouble with this,” she tweeted at Huang.

Wu has been no stranger to protestors, as a vocal minority have raised opposition to the city’s employee and indoor COVID-19 vaccination mandates in recent weeks, including by staging demonstrations outside the mayor’s Roslindale home.

But Monday’s incident appeared to succinctly highlight the sexism and racism Wu, the first woman and person of color elected to serve as mayor, has experienced since taking office in November. She and other public officials have spoken out about and denounced the persistent issue during her short tenure in the mayor’s office.

Monday’s press conference came as the Election Modernization Coalition, a group of voting and civil rights advocacy organizations, continued to push for election-day voter registration to be included in a massive voting reform legislative package on Beacon Hill.

The proposal, if passed, could make certain practices — like mail-in voting — adopted during COVID-19 permanent fixtures of Massachusetts elections, MassLive reports.

Voting Rights Advocacy Groups Hold Press Conference on Election Day Registration Compromise for VOTES Act

Voting Rights Advocacy Groups to Hold Press Conference on Election Day Registration Compromise for VOTES Act

MONDAY February 14, 2022 - 1pm - State House Steps

On Monday February 14, 2022 @ 1pm on the steps in front of the Massachusetts State House, the Election Modernization Coalition and community leaders will host "We ️ Voting (and Registering on Election Day)" -- an in-person press conference calling on House and Senate conference committee members to include compromise Election-Day Registration language in the final version of the VOTES Act to be sent to the Governor. Election Day Registration is a form of Same Day Registration that would allow for voters to register on election day, but not on early voting days. 

The Senate included the full Same-Day Registration language (including early voting days) in their version of the VOTES Act but the House didn't include any version of it. Election Day Registration is a compromise between the House and Senate versions that will address many barriers to voting that disproportionately limit the political power of communities of color across Massachusetts, while accounting for the concerns raised by the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association. 

Election Day Registration is very popular with voters. A recent UMass Amherst poll showed that 65% of Massachusetts voters support it. Advocates points to it being the strongest equity provision of the bill as research shows it could boost voter turnout for Black and Latino voters upwards of 17%. 

The Election Modernization Coalition is the ACLU MA, Common Cause MA, Lawyers for Civil Rights, League of Women Voters MA, MA Voter Table, MassVOTE, and MASSPIRG.

Drawing Democracy Report - Achieved 80% of The Drawing Democracy Coalition’s Goals! →

It's been a couple of months since the redistricting maps that we worked so hard on became law. Since then, we've been busy developing our final report that summarizes our big wins and key takeaways from the process.

Because we couldn't have done all of this with you, we wanted to be sure that you were one of the first to see our final report. Click here to read and download it – and please share it far and wide! We want everyone to see the all of the hard work that went into this process and the results we were able to deliver for our communities.

Baker to Decide Fate of Voting District Bill →

HYANNIS – A bill is in the works that would postpone the re-precincting of the state before redistricting, which would change the current order of the process.

The census data needed to perform the “re-princincting” in timely manner was held up due to the complications of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Concerns among officials and residents that rushing the process would not allow enough time for resident feedback pushed the bill through both the house and senate.

Proponents for the bill claim that it would help to reduce gerrymandering and unfair drawing of district lines.

Allowing for proper and equitable representation of voters is a concern of those backing the bill.

It is now up to Governor Charlie Baker to determine whether or not the bill, H. 3863, is signed into law.

One of the groups advocating for the bull is the Massachusetts Voter Table, which seeks to encourage more eligible individuals to take part in making their voices heard through voting.