NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City residents are being warned of the consequences of not completing the census — their voting status will be deemed inactive. 

 

"We currently have just about 5,000 returns, and we really need to get people to return their census," said City Clerk Tina Leonesio at Tuesday's City Council meeting. "We have over 10,000 voters in the system."

 

She reminded audience members that the state mandates that they return their census forms. 

 

Massachusetts is the only state that conducts an annual street listing to determine who and how many people are living in each community. It requires boards of registrars in municipalities of 5,000 or more people to create lists of all persons age 17 and older by street or alphabetically.

 

These lists are used for updating voter rolls, calling up juries, confirming numbers for services such as veterans benefits and schools, and proof of residency for colleges and universities.  

 

This year, anyone who hasn't returned their form by June 1, will be placed on the inactive voter list. 

 

"Which means, come voting time, they're going to have to come up to the table, they're going to have to fill out forms, show that they're still living in the where they were living, and then go vote," said Leonesio. "It's going to be so much easier if people just turn in their census."

 

The form can be brought to the city clerk's office, mailed or emailed. If you have lost your census form, contact the city clerk for a new one. 

 

"We have saved everything. We can reprint your census and have it available for pickup. Can email it to you, scan it and email it, or can take and mail it back out," she said. "I cannot express how important it is to get those censuses back in. It's also very much affects the city's what we get, and we have a federal census that's going to be starting, so we want to make sure we have that."

 

Council President Ashley Shade reminded citizens that the census also affects the city budget as well as voting.

 

"So get your census in soon and it'll be much easier to vote, and the city will get more money from the state. And we want more money from the state," she said. "So we don't have to take it from you."