By Jordan DelFiugo, Belmont Voice correspondent
On Saturday, the first day of early voting in Massachusetts, Belmont residents Linda Levin-Scherz and Dorothy Stoneman will lead a procession from Beech Street Center to Belmont Center, where first-time voters can register and early voters can cast ballots.
“Voting is a pillar of democracy,” Levin-Scherz said. “If we want our democracy to continue existing, it is the single most important thing we can do as citizens.”
The Oct. 17 march is part of a nationwide voter-mobilization effort led by Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit that promotes social justice and civic engagement, and No Kings, a grassroots political movement that organizes protests against overreaches by President Donald Trump’s second administration. But, unlike past No Kings demonstrations, Levin-Scherz said this event will focus on nonpartisan voter outreach rather than protest.
Both organizers have a history of community organizing. Born and raised in Belmont, Stoneman joined the Civil Rights movement after college and later founded YouthBuild, a nonprofit that provides low-income young adults with paid job training and high school equivalency courses through affordable housing projects.
Levin-Scherz has lived in Belmont for 36 years and has served on the School Committee and the Foundation for Belmont Education. She currently serves on the Democratic Town Committee.
“We want everyone to feel welcome and to focus on early voting in a way that feels motivational,” Levin-Scherz said. “We’re gathering peacefully as a united movement, encouraging people to just show up and vote.”
In the 2024 presidential election, 78% of the town’s registered voters cast ballots. In this year’s state Senate primary, Belmont’s 35% turnout was nearly double Boston’s.
Still, Stoneman believes work remains.
“When I first proposed this event in Belmont, various people said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, Belmont votes,’” Stoneman said. “But my feeling is, even if it is only a few thousand, or a few hundred people who didn’t vote in the last election, it’s still worth asking ‘why?’ It’s still important to take their votes seriously.”
This November, Massachusetts voters face a record nine questions on the ballot. Among them are referendums that would ban recreational marijuana sales, roll back gun reform policies and eliminate political party primaries for state elections.
“We want to encourage people to vote according to what matters to them, to study the issues, to study the ballot, to study the candidates,” Levin-Scherz said. “We are not recommending anything in particular, except that people join us in the movement to take our democracy seriously.”
Beyond promoting voter turnout, Stoneman said the event is about building community. The night before the march, organizers will host a sign-making session at The First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist, so people can connect in a more personal setting before Saturday’s gathering.
“Belmont is a nice town, but like all towns, it can benefit from more unification and even more bridging across different cultures, age groups, and religious backgrounds,” Stoneman said. “Our hope is to unify Belmont around a general responsibility of building a better future for all, and voting is one thing we can do, and must do, to work toward that.”
The procession will begin at 1 p.m. at the Beech Street Center. Attendees can register via the mobilize.us webpage.
This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Belmont Voice, and other news organizations in the Boston area.
