“Same Day Voter Registration is a critical step towards eliminating barriers to voting, which disproportionately affect voters of color and low income voters,” Shanique Spalding, the executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, an advocacy group devoted to addressing racial injustice and economic inequality, said in a statement.

By adopting the legislation, Massachusetts will “send a clear message that every eligible citizen’s voice matters and deserves to be heard,” Spalding continued.

Government officials and organizations can help meet this need by targeting the root causes of these voting barriers and facilitating neighbor-to-neighbor education programs. Massachusetts Voter Table (MVT) offers a robust example of what it takes to make voting more accessible. Along with their nonpartisan community-based partners and over 1,000 grassroots leaders they’ve trained, have had conversations with close to 750,000 unique voters in gateway cities and Boston. Their successful campaigns, bolstered by this relationship building, have yielded victories in policy areas such as earned sick time, a $15 minimum wage, and affordable housing. We must facilitate campaigns like this one.

“To Secretary Galvin’s credit, the integrity of our elections have been strong the past 30 years,” Huang said. “I think one area where he could leave a legacy is by ensuring greater access and equity in our elections system.”

Growing turnout in a sustainable way, she says, will take a lot of painstaking, trust-building, community-based organizing that transcends any single election.

Massachusetts Voter Table, a nonprofit that aims to build political power in communities of color, does some of that work. But executive director Shanique Spalding says it’s difficult to do at scale.

The incoming Legislature will also benefit from more people of color serving among its members, said Beth Huang, the executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table.

MA Voter Table Executive Director Beth Huang said it all comes back to trust and people trusting that their vote actually can lead to change in their community. But that trust between a candidate or elected official and voters can’t only exist when an election is coming up, she said.

“Trust is broken when candidates make big promises, their campaign office is closed by that Wednesday or Thursday after Election Day, and then people vote and things don’t change,” Huang said. “And so I think sometimes we see a trust broken when there aren’t continued organizations or structures for people to be engaged year-round.”

What they're saying: "The additional funds for any other social supports for food, for heating, for child care and more also really matter to how rent-burdened families are able to live their daily lives," Beth Huang, executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, tells Axios.

That also extends to federal transportation funding, she says. "We really can't separate transportation from housing. People want to live close to where they work and want a commute that is bearable."

"This is a big win for democracy," said Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a nonpartisan group. "We are seeing youth voter turnout continuing to increase, and the ability to engage a young person while they're still in high school increases the likelihood that they will become civically engaged when they reach voting age."

Beth Huang, executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, offered a few reasons for the disparity: Many voters of color and low-income voters are “skeptical about why it’s important to vote” and of mail-in voting itself, she said. The process requires multiple steps — because voters have to apply for their mail ballots instead of being automatically sent them like in some other states — creating a “higher barrier to entry.” And whether someone rents or owns a home could also make a difference.

“Places where we know there are so many renters, like in Everett and Chelsea, I would not be surprised if a large number of mail-in ballot applications went to the wrong addresses, which is part of the argument for the application,” Huang told Playbook. …

Huang and her group are working to close those gaps for the general election, regardless of how people cast their ballots. “We have three good options,” she said. “That’s really what matters to us.”