AN ACT PROVIDING FURTHER PUBLIC INFORMATION AND
STRENGTHENING PETITION ANTI-FRAUD SAFEGUARDS FOR
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM QUESTIONS
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend
to defeat its purpose, which is forthwith to provide further public
information and to strengthen petition anti-fraud safeguards for
initiative and referendum questions, therefore it is hereby declared to be
an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public
convenience.
SECTION 1. Section 22A of chapter 53 of the General
Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by
adding the following sentence: - The state secretary shall prominently
print in several locations on both sides of the blank forms for each
initiative and referendum petition a distinctive letter different from
that on the blank forms for other petitions likely to be in circulation
at the same time.
SECTION 2. Said chapter 53 is hereby further amended by inserting after
said
section 22A the following 2 sections:-
Section 22C. (a) No person shall, by falsely describing the general
subject matter of a state initiative or referendum petition, induce any
other person in his presence to believe that a petition then being
presented for signature is a different petition, and thereby to sign the
petition being presented at a time when the different petition is in
circulation.
(b) No person, including a political committee or other organization,
shall pay or agree to pay money or any other thing of value, and no
person shall receive or agree to receive such payment, to circulate a
state initiative or referendum petition to obtain
voters' signatures, unless:
(1) the payment is not based on the number of signatures obtained; and
(2) the person who has paid or agreed to pay to circulate the petitions
has, before any circulation by a person who has received or agreed to
receive such payments, filed with the state secretary on a form provided
by the state secretary a statement signed under the penalties of perjury
showing:
(i) the name and residential address of the person who has made or
agreed to make such payments;
(ii) the terms of payment, including the rate of pay;
(iii) the identity of the initiative or referendum petition or petitions
for which such
payments will be made.
(c) As used in subsection (b), "any other thing of value" shall not
include ceremonial recognition or other non-monetary incentives if the
aggregate total value is not more than $50 to a circulator in a calendar
year.
(d) Each person who circulates a state initiative or referendum petition
shall sign on each sheet of the petition, after all voters have signed
that sheet, a statement under the penalties of perjury that the
signatures on that sheet were signed in the circulator's presence and,
to the best of the circulator's knowledge, by the voters named. The
statement shall also contain the circulator's legibly printed name,
residential address and telephone number, correct as of the time of the
circulator's signing, and the dates when the first and last signatures
on that sheet were signed.
(e) Signatures obtained in violation of this section, or on petition
sheets submitted without complying with this section, shall be invalid.
The state secretary shall enforce this subsection if petition sheets are
not in apparent conformity with subsection (d) when filed. Otherwise the
state ballot law commission shall enforce this subsection upon objection
under chapter 55B.
(f) A person who violates subsection (a) or (d), or who pays or agrees
to pay in violation of subsection (b), shall be punished by a fine of
not more than $1,000 for each such violation.
Section 22D. After the last day to submit signatures for certification
and within 10 days after receiving a request in writing from a ballot
question committee organized under chapter 55, the state secretary shall
provide in electronic form a list of the names and addresses of the
signers certified by the registrars on a specified state initiative or
referendum petition that the committee is organized to favor or oppose.
The list shall be arranged by the signers' city or town, and then
alphabetically by the signers' surnames.
SECTION 3. Section 5B of chapter 55 of the General Laws, as appearing in
the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out the word
"employer.", in line 8, and inserting in place thereof the following
words:- employer; and (iii) clearly indicates that the committee has
been organized to support or oppose a specific state initiative or
referendum question, if that is true.
SECTION 4. Section 18 of said chapter 55, as so appearing, is hereby
amended by inserting after the word "month", in line 8 1, the following
words: - until 45 days before the election, and thereafter (3A) on
Friday of each week, complete as of the preceding Thursday.
SECTION 5. Said chapter 55 is hereby further amended by inserting after
section
18C, as so appearing, the following section:-
Section 18D. The director shall publish on the Internet, and shall
update at reasonable intervals on the Internet, at an Internet address
that the state secretary shall publish in the information materials sent
to voters under section 53 of chapter 54:
(a) the most recent list of the 10 contributors contributing the largest
total amounts to committees organized for the purpose of supporting and
to committees organized for the purpose of defeating a state initiative
or referendum question, and all contributors to each committee organized
for these purposes contributing more than $5,000 in any one election
cycle;
(b) the most recent contribution amount for each listed contributor;
(c) the address, employer, and occupation of each listed contributor;
(d) the most recent total of expenditures for each committee organized
for the
purpose of supporting or defeating a state initiative or referendum
question;
(e) a graph or chart depicting the percentage of all contributions made
to all committees organized for the purpose of supporting and all
committees organized for the purpose of defeating a state initiative or
referendum question. This graph or chart shall depict contributions in
amounts less than $50, $50 or more but less than $200, $200 or more but
less than $1,000, $1,000 or more but less than $10,000, and more than
$10,000;
(f) the office address, telephone number, and Internet website address
of the
director's office, where the public may obtain additional information;
and
(g) a statement informing voters that they can obtain more information
regarding the financial information for state initiative or referendum
question committees at the office's physical location or Internet
website.
SECTION 6. Section 5 of chapter 55B of the General Laws, as so
appearing, is hereby amended by striking out the words "thirtieth day
succeeding the last day for filing such initiative", in lines 18 and 19,
and inserting in place thereof the following words:forty-fifth day after
the last day for filing the initiative or referendum.
SECTION 7. Section 10 of chapter 55B of the General Laws, as so
appearing, is hereby amended by striking out the word "twenty-first", in
line 17, and inserting in place thereof the following word:- thirtieth.
SECTION 8. Chapter 56 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking
out section 11, as so appearing, and inserting in place thereof the
following section:-
Section I 1. Whoever falsely makes or willfully alters, defaces,
mutilates, destroys or suppresses a certificate of nomination or
nomination paper, or letter of withdrawal of a name from such paper, or
an initiative or referendum petition or other petition for the
submission of a question to the voters, or unlawfully signs or causes to
be signed unlawfully any such certificate, paper, letter or petition, or
files or gives to another person for the purpose of filing any such
certificate, paper, letter or petition, knowing the same to be falsely
made or altered or unlawfully signed, shall be punished by a fine of not
more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for not more than 1 year.