On Election Day in Lawrence, political corruption, low voter turnout, and uncontested races converge

NOT MANY POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS are born in a bar a month before Election Day, but Diego Leonardo’s decision to run for state office certainly wasn’t the most striking news to come out of Lawrence this year.

In September, the 34-year-old college professor and biotech company owner stopped by Sazón Perú, a Peruvian restaurant and bar, to grab a drink. There, he watched the local evening news being broadcast on multiple TVs.

On one was a segment detailing Mayor Brian DePeña’s arrest after federal prosecutors in August charged him with fraud and money laundering.

On another, there was a segment covering the 11-count indictment of state Rep. Francisco Paulino, a Democrat representing Lawrence and Methuen, who was also arrested and charged in August with eight counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

“I thought, ‘Wow, it’s so embarrassing to live here. What are we doing?’” Leonardo recalls.

The city of 90,000 is no stranger to political corruption scandal.

Since the end of 2023 alone, a city councilor was charged with and pleaded guilty to voter fraud, DePeña’s former chief of staff was sentenced for transporting and possessing child pornography, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell launched a criminal investigation into allegations of secret audio recording inside Lawrence City Hall. More than a decade ago, William Lantigua was also shrouded in scandal throughout his time as mayor.

That night earlier this fall, Leonardo struck up a conversation with other bargoers about corruption in Lawrence and the city’s historical lack of competitive elections. Some said they wouldn’t waste their time voting this year.

That’s when Leonardo, an immigrant from Guatemala, asked if they would vote for someone like him. They said they would.

“The next day, I called some community leaders and said, ‘What do you think about me running?’” Leonardo said. “They said, ‘Yeah, next year we definitely need somebody.’ And I was like, ‘Not next year — now.’”

Though he was already months past the April 28 deadline to submit nomination papers, meaning his name couldn’t appear on the November 3 ballot, Leonardo, an independent, charged ahead with a write-in campaign for 16th Essex District state representative, the seat currently held by Paulino.

City Councilor Celina Reyes, who defeated the indicted representative in the September Democratic primary, won the seat by a large majority on Tuesday. Leonardo, who ran without a campaign team and a source of funding, knew his bid was a long shot.

But running any non-incumbent campaign, write-in or not, is no easy endeavor in Lawrence. The city typically has one of the lowest turnout rates in the state.

“It’s worthwhile giving options to the community,” Leonardo said. “I think one thing my candidacy brought is hope.”

In the 2022 midterms, the city of Lawrence had the lowest voter turnout rate in Massachusetts at just under 22.8 percent. That number is even more striking when compared to more affluent communities like Mount Washington and Alford, which had the highest turnout at 75.7 and 73.3 percent, respectively.

This year, the city’s turnout landed at 25.6 percent, according to unofficial results. The modest increase represents progress, though the city still has a long way to go.

Statewide turnout numbers won’t be finalized and reported for a few weeks — but Chelsea, Lowell, and Springfield, which saw the state’s fourth, third, and second lowest turnout rates in 2022, on Wednesday were reporting roughly 33.6, 26.5, and 28.4 percent turnout respectively, according to unofficial results.

Lawrence voters, candidates, and civic organizations alike grappled Tuesday with the city’s recent political scandals, historically low turnout, and uncontested races as they tried to mobilize residents and make political change in the city.

“When government cannot be trusted, it gives folks a reason to say participating is pointless,” said Julio Mejia, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Project. “It deepens the distrust, it drives people away from the system, and it overshadows the community when Lawrence is being defined by headlines and controversies.”

But Mejia also said an opening for accountability has been created in Lawrence.

“There has been this call for us to create a pathway from that frustration, from that mistrust in government, to participation,” he said.

Gateway Cities like Lawrence — generally some of the state’s most disadvantaged and ethnically diverse urban communities — consistently have some of the lowest voter turnout rates in Massachusetts. In 2022, nine of the 10 municipalities with the lowest turnout in the state were Gateway Cities.

The phenomenon is hardly unique to Massachusetts. A 2023 report published by the Pew Research Center found that 2022 voters were whiter, older, and more educated than nonvoters, and research consistently finds higher turnout among voters with higher incomes. That discrepancy translates to more affluent people and communities having more of a say in who gets elected.

“The people who are least likely to vote are often the people who are most affected by decisions made through policy,” Shanique Rodriguez, executive director of the nonprofit Massachusetts Voter Table.

Lawrence voters face a litany of barriers when it comes to voting, including language and translation challenges, a lack of transportation, and economic insecurity. Nearly 83 percent of city residents are Hispanic or Latino, nearly half its population is foreign-born, and 78 percent speak a language other than English at home.

“We are a community with people of color, immigrants, and folks that work multiple jobs, and there is an economic cost to voting,” Mejia said.

Around 18 percent of Lawrence residents live below the poverty line, which is nearly twice the statewide average of just under 10 percent. The city’s median household income is $60,000, less than 60 percent of the state’s $104,000.

Those with lower incomes are less likely to own a home and more likely to rent, meaning they also tend to move more frequently than homeowners. This often disrupts voter registration and can impact how attached someone feels to the community where they live, and how likely they are to vote. Around 72 percent of Lawrence households rent, while 28 percent own homes.

“Low voter turnout is not necessarily evidence that residents don’t care about the city,” Mejia said. “It reflects a combination of structural barriers, limited political engagement, and a lack of confidence that participation and voting would lead to change.”

Voter registration reports filed by Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office show that more than 50,000 people were registered to vote in Lawrence this election, the highest that number has been in any election in well over a decade.

Unofficial election results show that nearly 560 write-in votes were cast in the 16th Essex District on Tuesday, which was more than three times as many seen in other state legislative districts. Reyes, the only candidate on the ballot, received around 4,250 votes, while nearly 900 voters left the contest blank.

Outside an elementary school on Tuesday, Leonardo’s supporters held signs and handed out flyers alongside Reyes’s supporters.

“It’s encouraging. It brings more people out to vote, and it brings another option for people,” City Councilor Gregory Del Rosario said of Leonardo’s run, even as he held a campaign sign for Reyes. “When people are running unopposed, it leads voters to believe there will be no chance.”

State Sen. Pavel Payano, a Democrat representing Lawrence, ran uncontested in the 1st Essex District, as did state Reps. Estela Reyes and Frank Moran in the 4th and 17th Essex districts. Several other races, including the district attorney’s office, were also uncontested.

The recent headlines about Mayor DePeña’s arrest and the indictment of Rep. Paulino have in some ways reinforced a reputation for lawlessness that some say Lawrence does not deserve.

“Corruption in politics has been there forever. It’s a nationwide crisis, and you see it at all levels of politics,” Del Rosario said.

DePeña, who has refused to resign, held signs throughout Lawrence on Tuesday urging people not to sign a citizen-led petition to recall him. Organizers have 30 days to collect signatures from at least 15 percent of registered voters, which is more than 7,000 signatures in Lawrence.

Meanwhile, residents like Juan Tejada and Altagracia Mayi camped out under a curbside tent on Election Day and gathered signatures to oust the embattled mayor. To them, the charges against DePeña birthed a deep sense of betrayal in the community that left some voters jaded, even though the mayor was not on the ballot.

“We are Dominican just like him. It’s like — why are you doing this to your own people?” Tejada said. “When you have people in office like that, it’s like, ‘Why would I go and vote? It’s going to be the same.’ That’s what people think.”

As Leonardo put it: “Corruption starts to corrupt the whole system.”

Even those who did show up to vote in Lawrence agree.

“A lot of things going on are unsavory … It’s all just so close to home, and it’s much more sobering when it’s that close to you,” 21-year-old voter Gianmarcus Marrero said as he left his polling site on Tuesday. “Corruption leads to voter turnout being low. You see this going on for so long, and you become numb to it. You start to think, ‘What’s one vote of mine going to do?’ But we shouldn’t normalize these things.”

Getting more people to the polls surely won’t guarantee scandal-free mayors and representatives in Lawrence, but could it, at the very least, increase public scrutiny of office seekers?

Lawrence voters like Janelle Nutter are still holding out hope.

“It’s scary, because these are people put in a position where we should be able to trust them,” she said as she left the polls on Tuesday. “But you still put your vote in and pray for a change — pray for something better.”

Mejia said when the public’s trust in democracy is shaken, what they need are not reasons to be cynical but rather meaningful ways to demand transparency and integrity from their elected officials.

The Merrimack Valley Project’s nonpartisan civic engagement work includes door-to-door outreach, phone calls, and resource-building. The organization has also held candidate forums and public assemblies in an effort to engage residents in local elections.

“We need change,” Shaneka Rodriguez, another Lawrence resident, said outside of her polling place. “I don’t think a lot of people here realize that they can make a difference. I see so many people who have opinions, but the numbers don’t show those opinions.”

Other local nonprofits like Lawrence Community Works tabled outside rent-restricted housing developments on Tuesday, encouraging voters to head to the polls and study up on the flurry of ballot questions. Still, many residents told the organization they weren’t voting, either because they couldn’t get to the polls or simply didn’t want to.

“Lawrence can take its power back when the people who live, work, worship, and raise their families here recognize that their voice can actually shape the future of the city,” Mejia said. “If we have that larger vision, we’ll be able to build a community powerful enough to hold leaders accountable and set priorities, but also shift this narrative that Lawrence doesn’t vote or is not engaged.”

But he said it’s about more than just getting people to the polls. It’s about engaging them beyond the voting booth and encouraging them to participate in public meetings or organize with their neighbors.

Or run for office themselves, as Leonardo learned.

“If you don’t get into politics, politics gets into you,” Leonardo said.