Understanding the Ballot Initiative Process

Massachusetts has the indirect initiative process of getting petitions on the ballot. Citizens gather signatures in order to qualify their petition for the vote, but before it appears on the ballot, the initiative goes to the state legislature. If the legislature does not pass the petition or act upon in another way before a certain time, only then does the measure appear on the ballot. There are only six other states in the country that have an exclusively indirect process for ballot initiatives.

The Constitution puts some restrictions on the subjects of ballot initiatives. They cannot deal with: religion, judges, the courts, particular localities, specific appropriations, and aspects of the state constitution’s Declaration of Rights as well as the Bill of Rights.

The process of getting an initiative on the ballot is a long one. Here’s how it works:

10 voters draw up and sign the original petition and present it to the State Attorney General by the first Wednesday of the August previous to the year of the next gubernatorial election. In this case, that date was August 5, 2009.                        

The Attorney General approves the petition, returns it to the originators, and files it with the Secretary of State by the first Wednesday of that September, which was September 2, 2009.

The petitioners must gather voter signatures and submit them to the Secretary of State by December 2, 2009.  They must get signatures from at least 3% of the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election (this year that number was 66,593).

The initiative then goes to the State legislature the next month (January 2010), where they can either approve or disapprove the measure, propose a substitute, or take no action.             

Unless the legislature has enacted the measure by the first Wednesday of May (May 4, 2010), the petitioners must collect another round of signatures, this time at least 0.5% of the number that voted the last time around (11,099).

If they gather enough signatures by early July (July 7, 2010), then the initiative is placed on the November ballot for public vote.

Once a petition is on the ballot, the measure is in the hands of the public! In order for the initiative to pass, at least 30% of the voters who cast ballots in the election must vote on the initiative, and the majority of votes cast on the ballot initiative must be affirmative. The measure takes effect after 30 days or when specified.