Massachusetts Election Officials Reject Latest Challenge of Legalization Repeal Question

A challenge to the ballot initiative seeking to repeal adult-use cannabis laws in Massachusetts was rejected on Tuesday by the State Ballot Law Commission, NBC Boston reports. The challenge by Stop the Repeal campaign alleged that numerous signatures were “obtained through fraudulent means,” were not “genuine,” were “illegible,” and excluded required addresses or included stray marks and that the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts did not file the required 12,429 certified signatures. 

In order to prevent the question from appearing on November ballots, the commission would have had to agree to disqualify 123 signatures but concluded Stop the Repeal had not met the burden of proof that the signatures were obtained unlawfully or were otherwise disqualifying.   

The commission declined to disqualify 231 signatures because of stray marks, saying the marks appear mostly on the back of the petitions and “do not appear to be intentional markings and do not present voters with any information.”  

“Instead, they are errant pen marks that have no material effect on the remainder of the content of the petition.” — Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission via NBC Boston 

The commission declined to invalidate another 99 signatures that Stop the Repeal argued were “non-genuine,” with one person signing multiple names. The commission said the campaign did not “prove by substantial evidence” that the signatures were signed by the same person. 

The commission ordered that the question will appear on ballots in November.