Last December, Secretary of State Bill Galvin said his office had never seen so many ballot questions submitted at once. A total of 11 initiative petitions ultimately cleared the signature-gathering threshold, joining a gun law referendum already on track for the 2026 contest. Groups that had spent years frustrated by Beacon Hill ignoring calls to pass legislation opted to take their case directly to voters.
Six of them landed before the Supreme Judicial Court. Three of them hit the wall.
As a result of legal challenges and an advisory opinion requested by lawmakers, the two highest-profile ballot campaigns and a third question, which would have reworked the payment system in the Legislature, are off the table.
Rent control? Booted from the ballot. A major cut in the income tax? Also gone. A third measure, aimed at reforming how legislative leaders hand out stipends, was ruled out of bounds by the attorney general before advocates could even finish gathering signatures.
The initiatives all failed in some way to comply with rules for ballot questions set out in the Massachusetts Constitution.
Their court-ordered demise stands as a cautionary tale for enthusiastic advocates looking to find a route around recalcitrant lawmakers. They learned the hard way that the ballot process may be quicker, but it can also prove to be a more perilous method for lawmaking than working through normal legislative channels.
Published by MassINC