Hits and misses on ballot questions targeting elections

ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell was generous in certifying dozens of ballot initiatives, the first step for them to go before voters in the 2024 and 2026 cycle, but she used a sharper pen when it came to several measures that could have revamped voting and election rules.

Efforts to put versions of ranked choice voting on the ballot got the certification axe from the AG, largely because a similar measure was put before voters in the 2020 statewide election. The attorney general’s certification process is designed to check the constitutional appropriateness of any ballot measure, and the questions are not allowed to be substantially similar to any ballot initiative in the past two election cycles. 

John Griffin, managing partner of strategy at Partners in Democracy, a nonprofit founded by Harvard professor Danielle Allen, filed a package of five measures with the attorney general’s office, only one of which was certified – proposing “An Act Expanding Opportunities for Voter Registration.”

That initiative would allow same-day voter registration at polling locations and allow in-person and mail-in registration by the Friday before election day. Voters who show up to register on election day would need proof of legal residency on the day, but could be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that would only be counted if identification were provided within the week.

Same day registration and voter ID laws have become flashpoints in debates about electoral reform, with efforts to enact same day registration withering on Beacon Hill despite the backing of advocates, progressive lawmakers, and Secretary of State Bill Galvin. Requiring voter identification, meanwhile, is touted by backers as a way to make elections more secure, but progressives argue that the practice deliberately raises barriers for non-white voters.

The attorney general was not so permissive with various initiatives that would have implemented ranked choice voting – in which voters rank their preferred candidates and have their votes counted in successive rounds until a candidate with majority support comes out on top – or a “top five preliminary.” The top five system would do away with partisan primaries and let voters pick their favored candidates for certain offices, regardless of political party, with up to five candidates with the highest number of votes moving on to a general election ballot.

These ranked choice changes, Campbell’s office said, are essentially the same as the ranked choice ballot measure narrowly defeated in 2020 and therefore cannot be placed on a ballot within two voting cycles. 

The assortment of ballot initiatives Griffin filed included versions bundling several voting changes. All that included a ranked choice or “instant runoff” model were struck by the AG because of the prior ranked choice ballot measure. Campbell also dinged the bundled initiatives for violating the “related or…mutually dependent” rule, which is designed to prevent voters from having to decide multiple different questions in one ballot measure.

A final measure, which would have prohibited “foreign-influenced business entities” from making certain contributions and expenditures, was also denied certification. The proposal, the attorney general wrote, would likely conflict with political speech protections guaranteed to individuals and corporations under federal and state law. 

The measure to abolish that amendment was filed by Katie Talbot, lead organizer with Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts, a social justice organization working with The No Longer 3/5ths Coalition to restore voting rights for those in prison. They are adamantly against “no representation for incarcerated people,” the group says on its website.