Massachusetts
An effort in Woburn, Massachusetts, to help educate area voters on the effects of future ballot measures and referendum questions has hit a snag in the City Council’s Liaison Committee. Disagreements over the issue of who would write the summaries describing each ballot issue and who would approve that text have put any action on hold for now.
The issue arose after a 2014 local referendum on the adoption of a “Community Preservation Act,” which election officials were not allowed to explain to voters for the sake of neutrality. The measure ultimately failed, but inspired City Clerk William Campbell to push for some method by which voters could be better informed about ballot questions.
Oh tidings of great citizen joy. Last week several groups of activists from across the political spectrum managed to collect enough signatures to get their initiative petitions heading for the 2014 ballot.
Each petition needed 68,911 certified signatures, which means that the signatures collected through the fall had to be validated by city and town clerks as belonging to registered voters before they were turned in to the Secretary of State’s Office on Dec. 4. This means that petition groups aim to collect 100,000 signatures, since many would be either invalid, duplicates or in violation of some regulation. If you’ve never run one of these drives, you can’t imagine how much time and energy they consume.
The state’s largest teachers union plans to file a lawsuit against the state today for allowing a ballot initiative that would radically alter job protection for teachers in Massachusetts public schools to move forward.
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The Massachusetts Teachers Association contends that the ballot initiative fails to meet constitutional muster and should have never been certified last summer by Attorney General Martha Coakley, according to a copy of the complaint that is expected to be filed in the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
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The state’s largest teachers union plans to file a lawsuit against the state today for allowing a ballot initiative that would radically alter job protection for teachers in Massachusetts public schools to move forward.
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The Massachusetts Teachers Association contends that the ballot initiative fails to meet constitutional muster and should have never been certified last summer by Attorney General Martha Coakley, according to a copy of the complaint that is expected to be filed in the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
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A state ballot initiative that would make the performance of teachers - rather than years of service - the top consideration in whether they keep their jobs is gaining some momentum, even as it faces strong opposition from teachers unions, state education leaders, and other educators.
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Lobbyists for and against the initiative will descend on Beacon Hill in the coming weeks as the Legislature considers the proposal. The initiative moved to the Legislature last week, after the secretary of state’s office certified that organizers had secured enough signatures to advance to the next stage of the lengthy process to get a question on a state ballot.
The state’s top elections official has given the green light to four proposed questions for the November ballot in Massachusetts.
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Secretary of State William Galvin announced Wednesday that he has informed the House Clerk all four initiative petitions have more than the 68,911 certified signatures of registered voters needed to proceed.
Casino developers and their opponents are likely to wage expensive fights to influence voters in potential host communities in the coming months, prompting the state’s top elections official to call for stronger oversight of spending for or against local referendums.
A bill proposed by Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin would require that all spending on a local casino referendum be reported to a state agency that administers campaign finance law, as is the case with statewide ballot questions. Under current rules, money spent to influence votes on a local issue is reported only to the city or town clerk of that community.
Voters are poised to decide four statewide ballot questions next year including proposals to allow the terminally ill to take their own lives and to impose a disputed evaluation law for teachers. Two other questions headed for the ballot seek to legalize medical marijuana and to allow independent repair businesses access to all the software they need for repairing motor vehicles.
A ballot campaign to gut a cornerstone of the 2006 health care law signed by Gov. Mitt Romney has generated little out-of-state interest despite the potential national implications of the effort, a top organizer said Thursday. Bridget Fay, treasurer of the campaign to repeal the state’s requirement that residents obtain health insurance – a move that backers say would lead to the unraveling of the entire law – said supporters have collected about 10,000 signatures since early September. Ballot laws require the collection of 69,900 certified voter signatures by Nov. 23 in order to proceed, and successful organizers typically collect 100,000 signatures or more in order to guard against challenges.
The Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents (MAIA) has agreed to a request from state lawmakers to withdraw the ballot initiative it filed in August to prohibit the use of credit scoring, education, and occupational data in auto insurance. From now on, the group will focus on its ongoing legislative effort.
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Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Wednesday she has certified nearly all of the proposed questions for the Massachusetts ballot in 2012, including proposals to repeal the state’s health care law, allow the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores, and legalize medical marijuana. Coakley said 23 of the 31 initiative petitions filed with her office by last month’s deadline have been certified, allowing supporters to begin gathering voter signatures to get their measures on next year’s November ballot.
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The Massachusetts General Court [the state legislature] Joint Committee on the Judiciary recommended Monday that two bills aimed at doubling the signature requirements for ballot initiatives ought not to pass. H 1830, sponsored by Rep. Denise Provost, was heard by the committee on March 13; and S 13, sponsored by Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, was heard April 14.
An editorial in the Boston Globe wonders if it’s too easy for citizen initiatives to make it onto the ballot in Massachusetts. Lawmakers in the state are trying to raise the number of signatures needed by citizens:
Legislation sponsored by Representative Denise Provost, a Somerville Democrat, and scheduled for a public hearing yesterday would more than double the number of certified signatures that citizen activists need to put initiative petitions on the statewide ballot, according to Citizens for Limited Taxation, which will testify against the proposal.
The Massachusetts Legislature is currently working to double the number of signatures citizens would need to place a measure on the ballot. Citizens in Charge President Paul Jacob sent a letter to each Massachusetts Senator and Representative calling on them to oppose this restriction on citizen rights: