Today’s interesting article that centered on Plymouth’s population (Do More Than 70,000 people live in Plymouth?) used back of the envelope calculations to estimate the number of Plymouth residents, which was based on a combination of the 2020 US census and estimates of registered voters and inactive voters. The article emphasized the reasonably accurate number of registered voters due to a 2023 state rule that automatically adds people to voting rolls when they apply for a driver’s license, learner’s permit, state ID, MassHealth benefits, or an insurance plan through the Massachusetts Health Connector portal. It estimated the number of people under the age of 18 (“…kids are people too”) by subtracting the number of registered and inactive voters from the 2020 census number.
The 2023 state rule would not capture non-citizens and/or immigrants as residents because this population is ineligible to vote. They are people too. This article’s glaring omission in considering and discussing the inclusion or lack of inclusion of the number of non-US citizens in Plymouth makes answering the question of the article’s title even more challenging. As pointed out by the author, including all residents, including non-citizens, has explicit implications for the number of representatives Plymouth holds in both national and state governing bodies.
– Karl Kuban