Voting Update
This Fight isn’t just Symbolic, its Winnable
Why It Matters….
(Quote TBC) “I’ve lived here for 28 years. I raised my kids here. Paid my taxes every year. To be told I don’t belong…? That broke something in me.”
— Rose Mooney, Long Beach #104
Many families live at Long Beach up to 9 months a year and pay full taxes. Others are here less than 9 month but still pay full yearly taxes and land leases. Some live here full-time within the allowed limits. Regardless of the duration, we all contribute significantly to the town’s revenue and all deserve the right to have a say in decisions that impact our community, especially the rebuilding of the seawall.
Our goal is simple: to establish clear and fair criteria for Rockport voter eligibility that includes and protects every qualifying Rockport Resident living at Long Beach.
Our vote helped secure millions in federal funds to protect the seawall, while certain Town officials are actively trying to erase the voices that helped make it happen. For a summary of events, please see below.
This isn't just about voting rights. It's about fiscal mismanagement, community erasure, and who gets to belong.
Let’s be clear: if Rockport can spend public resources investigating tax-paying residents, while ignoring the contribution we make to the town’s revenue, that’s not just frustrating, it’s a misuse of town priorities. And the people funding that misuse? That’s all of us.
We believe that we have legal precedent on our side. If an unhoused individual can legally use South Station as their address to vote in Boston, Massachusetts, then full-time Long Beach residents, who live here during the lease period, pay property taxes, and maintain their homes. should not be excluded from voting. This is a fight our Attorneys believe they an win, and these are the same Attorneys that represented us so well before and secured a successful a Settlement Agreement in 2018 for all 154 cottage/condo families.
The town may hope we quietly disappear. But history and the law are on our side. We’re not just protecting our homes. We’re defending a constitutional right worth fighting for.
To the residents who haven’t gotten involved yet:
walking away now means letting the town decide who gets a voice and who doesn’t.
This is about protecting your investment and your family’s future at Long Beach.
Your home. Your beach. Your peace of mind.
Whether you live here part-time or full-time—you’re part of this place.
Let’s make sure your voice helps protect it.
We need to remind Rockport’s leadership that we’re not invisible, not disposable, and not backing down.
🛑 This could be your last chance to have a say in Rockport.
🕔 Take a few minutes now to protect your home, your vote, your family and your legacy by donating the requested $1500/cottage to pay for the legal fees.
If we let this slide, what stops Rockport from taking even more?
Voting rights today. Lease rights next.
Special thanks to Doreen Hing for her input in drafting the above,
132 Long Beach
“After decades of being eligible to vote in Rockport, certain Town officials are attempting to silence our voices and erase Long Beach families Rockport residency.
LBIA’s Attorneys believe in our cases and will appeal all the way to the MA Supreme Judicial Court, if necessary, to correct this injustice.
And, when we succeed, Rockport residents living at Long Beach will vote together again— and again and again and again—- to rebuild the Long Beach Seawall, and more!”
A Summary
Letter to LBIA membership from the LBIA Legal Sub Committee on 2-6-25
In 2013, the Rockport Town Clerk instructed the LBIA, in writing, how Rockport residents living at Long Beach should proceed to register to vote in Rockport in order to be eligible to cast our vote for Town warrant articles, especially articles that pertain to the Long Beach Seawall. The Town Clerk was also quoted in the Gloucester Daily Times in 2013: “….residents (from Long Beach) switch back and forth between voting domiciles , especially since there are articles on the Town warrant this year (2013) that deal with the Long Beach Seawall”
For the past 11 years, the LBIA membership followed the Rockport Town Clerks guidance. We regularly communicated to all LBIA families encouraging you to register to vote in Rockport. And, the LBIA membership not only listened, you acted! The number of registered Rockport resident voters living at Long Beach increased from ~60 in 2013 to ~250 Rockport registered voters in 2024.
Even if you personally did not ,or could not, register to vote in Rockport and were unable to attend the 2024 Annual Town Meeting to cast a vote, approximately 200 of your Long Beach neighbors did. The required a 2/3rd majority vote to pass the FEMA EMERGENCY SEAWALL REBUILD GRANT was achieved. The ~200 Long Beach voters made the difference. Construction is targeted to being in the fall of this year.
However, the Town of Rockport is targeting Long Beach families and systematically disenfranchising those who are currently registered voters. The undeniable fact is that this unimaginable attack began after the FEMA $2.8M LB SEAWALL REBUILD GRANT was approved at Town Meeting.
Rockport’s attempt to permanently remove, and systematically refuse to re-register Long Beach voters in Rockport, effects every Long Beach family, not only now and for the future, but potentially forever. If we turn and walk away and permit this to happen, we relegate ourselves to pay annual land rent and property taxes, but surrender our voice and our right to vote in Rockport.
Recently, two Rockport registered voters living at Long Beach, who have voted in Rockport for over 20 consecutive years, were removed from the Rockport voter roll and denied reinstatement. Perhaps, some of your initial thoughts or reactions are, “ Wow, that’s really awful and unfortunate for those LB neighbors”, or, “ I can’t believe the Town of Rockport is now attempting to do this”, or “I don’t vote in Rockport so not involved”, or even worse, “ I really feel bad for my neighbors but this is no concern of mine.”
The unfortunate reality is it is the most serious of concerns for every one of the 154 families living at Long Beach.
A second complaint was filed on February 14, 2025 on behalf of 3 additional Rockport voter living at Long Beach and who were removed using a check the box letter that the Rockport Town Clerk has been using to remove Long Beach voters.
Twenty committed and determined members of our Long Beach families are currently carrying the fight in MA court, not only for their own right to vote in Rockport but for the right of every one of you and your family members too. The age range of the seventeen includes seniors to the next generation. They are refusing to accept this travesty of justice.
The fight to keep our voting right is deserving of your financial support. It may well be that the next breach of the Long Beach Seawall causes damages or destruction to your cottages.
LBIA’s attorney, William Sheehan, who won the favorable Settlement in 2018 for all LB cottage/condo owners, is already preparing to take this case, if necessary, all the way to the MA Supreme Judicial Court. He feels so strongly that he has offered to cap his legal fees even though it may take another year to accomplish the legal work involved. He also advised us that no one, who registered to vote in Rockport because they believe Rockport to be their domicile for voting purposes, did anything wrong. This was also the Town of Rockport’s position from 2013- 2023, as instructed by the Town Clerk. We are unaware of a single voter registration challenge at Long beach from 2013-2023 because we followed the Town’s guidance.
In 2024, the Town of Rockport decided they no longer agree with the advice they provided in 2013. They want to annually tax us but remove our right to choose our domicile for voting purposes. The Town’s position is that a 4 member Rockport Board of Registrars(BOR) volunteer committee is better qualified to choose where you consider your domicile for voting purposes. This is as un- American as it gets and it is directed against everyone of us whether we are registered to vote in Rockport or not.
We do not believe this issue has even been listed on a single Select Board Executive Session agenda in order that the Select Board could try to better understand MA Law and discuss the long history of voting by Rockport residents living at Long Beach. Instead, the Select Board appears to be comfortable wasting thousands of tax payers dollars in Town Attorneys legal fees in an attempt to defend the systematic disenfranchising of Rockport residents living at Long Beach.
The targeted and systematic disenfranchising of Rockport residents living at Long Beach will never be acceptable. We must fight all the way to the MA Supreme Judicial Court if necessary. We have done nothing wrong.
51 families have contributed as of Jan 31 2025. We are asking every family to contribute $1500. $1500 amount represents less than 1% of the market value of every cottage/condo on Long Beach. If you truly cannot afford the $1500, please contribute the maximum amount you can afford.
In the event the 20 cases were to be resolved sooner, either in court or via dialogue, the remaining legal fund contributions will be maintained in the LBIA legal fund for the next emergency.
The right to vote is sacrosanct in the United States and Attorney William Sheehan firmly believes the law provides every individual the right to choose their domicile for voting purposes.
Please join with the 51 LBIA families already financially supporting you and invest the future of Long Beach with a $1500 financial contribution to the LBIA legal fund. Please contribute today, or by Thursday, February 20th.
You can contribute by on the website by clicking here or by mailing a check payable to LBIA to:
Stacy Ho
35 Granger Street
Reading, MA 01867
Sincerely yours,
LBIA Legal Sub Committee
