Editing Lowell, Massachusetts (section)

=== Voting rights lawsuit ===

Lowell is the last city in Massachusetts to use a fully plurality-at-large system due to its impact in diluting minority representation on its city council and school committee. With majority bloc voting these two committees were all-white, and had been mostly so for decades, despite the fact that the city's minority population had grown to 49%.<ref name="VRALawsuit">{{cite web |title=Minority Residents Allege City's At-Large Electoral System Unlawfully Dilutes Their Vote |url=http://lawyersforcivilrights.org/our-impact/voting-rights/voting-rights-lawsuit-filed-against-lowell-mass/ |website=Lawyers for Civil Rights |access-date=2019-07-27 |archive-date=July 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727200101/http://lawyersforcivilrights.org/our-impact/voting-rights/voting-rights-lawsuit-filed-against-lowell-mass/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

On May 18, 2017, the Boston [[Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law|Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice]] filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Latino and Asian-American voters, charging Lowell with violating the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965|Voting Rights Act]].<ref name="VRALawsuit"/>

On May 29, 2019, a settlement agreement was reached that laid out six options for Lowell voters to review:<ref name="VRASettlement">{{cite web|title=Settlement of Federal Voting Rights Act Case Against Lowell, Mass.|url=http://lawyersforcivilrights.org/our-impact/voting-rights/settlement-of-federal-voting-rights-act-case-against-lowell-mass/|website=Lawyers for Civil Rights|access-date=2019-07-27|archive-date=July 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727200100/http://lawyersforcivilrights.org/our-impact/voting-rights/settlement-of-federal-voting-rights-act-case-against-lowell-mass/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* A single-member district-based system, with nine city council districts including at least two majority-minority districts, and three school committee districts electing two members each, with at least one being a majority-minority district.
* A hybrid system that combines single-member district-based seats with at-large seats:
** Hybrid 8-1 will have eight single-member districts (at least two majority-minority) and one at-large seat for the city council, and four single-member districts (at least one majority-minority) and two at-large seats for the school committee;
** Hybrid 8-3 is the same as 8-1 but expanding the city council by two at-large seats;
** Hybrid 7-2 will have seven single-member districts (at least two majority-minority) and two at-large seats for the city council, and seven single-member districts (at least two majority-minority) for the school committee (increasing its size by one);
* An at-large system of nine city council seats and six school committee seats, elected using single transferable vote — a return to the system in place between 1943 and 1957.
* A three-district system elected using single transferable vote, with three members from each elected to the city council and two members from each elected to the school committee.

Two options will be selected by the city council and will be put before the voters to choose in a non-binding referendum in November 2019, with a final decision by the city council in December 2019. The new system must be put in place by the November 2021 municipal elections.