Residents and city councilors said the petition was “bigoted,” “xenophobic,” and filled with “hate.”
A petition to require candidates for office in Worcester to submit naturalization papers as proof of citizenship was met with stark opposition Tuesday night at a Worcester City Council meeting.
“This was strategically placed right before an election,” Worcester Mayor and City Councilor-at-Large Joseph Petty said at the meeting. “It could have been placed a year ago. It could have been placed several months ahead of us. It seems to have been placed tonight, so we can all talk about this.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, sometimes people believe this rhetoric, but I’m not going to allow it.”
The Worcester City Council voted unanimously to file the petition, killing it from moving forward.
The law already states that to run for office one must be a registered voter, which requires citizenship. However, the petition filed by the Worcester Republican City Committee was asking for additional documentation.