Boston, MA: Representatives of the State Ballot Law Commission are allowing an anti-marijuana initiative effort to move forward despite claims that signature gatherers misled some voters into signing the petition.
Last week, commissioners dismissed the complaint, finding that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate widespread fraud. To prevail in the case, proponents needed to establish that nearly 4,000 voters had been misled to sign the petition.
The initiative, entitled ‘An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy,’ seeks to repeal Massachusetts laws permitting adults to home-cultivate marijuana and regulating the adult-use retail cannabis market. Those laws were enacted by voters in 2016. Prohibition groups are funding ballot efforts in three states – Arizona, Maine, and Massachusetts – to repeal voter-initiated adult-use legalization laws.
The commission’s decision came despite polling data indicating that a large percentage of Massachusetts’ voters say they would have refused to sign the initiative petition had they better understood its intentions. Voters in Maine have made similar allegations. However, state officials there have responded that canvassers’ misrepresentation of their efforts is First Amendment-protected speech.
Additional information is available from NORML’s Election Central.