Name: Barbara Katzenberg
Office Sought: Town Meeting Member Precinct 2
e-mail address: barbara.katzenberg [at] lextmma.orgmichaelschanbacherlexpb [at] gmail.com (
)phone number: 781-718-6618

Community Activities: 

• Town Meeting Member since 2021, with particular interests in housing and environmental questions
• Member of Lexington Cluster Housing Group, a team devoted to understanding, explaining, and suggesting improvements to bylaws related to the creation of diverse, multifamily housing. We actively worked for the passage of the MBTA-Communities rezoning
• Lexington representative of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission 2021-present
• Conservation Land Steward, 2020 to present, volunteered by leading walks, projects to remove invasive species
• Member of the the Lexington League of Women Voters, Citizens for Lexington Conservation

Article 43 on the 2024 Town Warrant is asking if the Town will authorize and request the Select Board to petition the General Court of the Commonwealth for Home Rule Legislation to allow any citizens in the Town of Lexington, who have reached the age of 16 or older, to register and vote in municipal elections within the Town, or to take any action in relative thereto. Would you support this article? Why or why not?

I am still undecided on this.  I work with many organizations that aim to improve participation and to motivate voters.  And, I remember when the 26th amendment to the Constitution was passed to lower the voting age so that anyone who was old enough to be drafted into military service would also have the right to vote. But 16 feels fundamentally different from 18 to me.  I think I would be more persuaded by an article to allow non-citizen adults to vote in municipal elections.