Massachusetts is on track to shatter its own record for ballot questions in a single election, with up to 11 measures potentially going before voters in November if they survive court fights and pointed legislative antagonism.
Eleven citizen-led initiative petitions cleared the signature-gathering threshold and were certified by the secretary of state’s office earlier this year, joining a gun law repeal referendum that was already guaranteed a spot on the ballot. The Legislature, which had until the first Wednesday in May to pass any of the 11 initiative petitions outright, recommended no action on any of the measures — the same approach it took two years ago.
The Supreme Judicial Court heard challenges this week to four of the initiative petitions. If the court finds issues with the measures, it could either remove them from the ballot entirely or order a correction to the language. The SJC generally issues rulings within 130 days of oral arguments; last cycle, the court didn’t hand down its final word until June.
The high court also weighed in with advisory rulings on two other ballot measures at the request of the Legislature, which has been chafing against the ever-expanding suite of ballot initiative petitions.
Its opinion that a measure creating new rules for legislative stipends was not appropriate for the ballot led Attorney General Andrea Campbell and the secretary of state’s office to block the initiative this week.
Campaigns now face a July deadline to collect an additional 12,429 signatures to lock in a spot on the ballot, even those whose questions are at risk of being tossed by the high court.
Here is where each of the surviving 11 measures stands.
Published by MassINC