A PROMISE TO KEEP: 5%
A Ballot Committee of
Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
PO Box 408 * Peabody, MA 01960
Phone:(617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
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*** Promise Update ***
Saturday, January 31, 1998

Greetings activists!

We desperately need computer-literate activists who can help us with the overwhelming job of scrutinizing signatures rejected by city and town clerks. We’ve got over half the state done now, but still have some 5,000 signatures to run down— and we’re now before the court will have a date very soon!

We have a computer in the office with the Worcester County voter database loaded, but need someone to come in and work it!

If anyone has Microsoft Access ‘95 loaded on their home or office computer and is willing to help, I can put an Access county database on it so you can give us a hand.

If you can help in *any* way, *please* call Chip Faulkner or Loretta Hayden ASAP in our Boston office: (617) 248-0022.

To those of you whom I’ve already provided a copy, please keep at it—the time’s *quickly* running out now.

So far, we’ve found over 1,600 (out of some 11,000) signatures that were not certified that we believe should have been, and they will challenge before the court.

Chip Ford—
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The (Quincy) Patriot Ledger
Saturday, January 31, 1998

Petition to cut taxes becomes paper war
By Barbara Anderson

The young man who was assigned by the Elections Division to guard the ballot law commission documents was reading Sun Tzu’s little black book on, "The Art of War." During breaks in the hearing, he read parts of it aloud to us.

"So the rule for use of the military is that if you outnumber the opponent 10 to one, then surround them . . ."

Our side was surrounded, all right. The Massachusetts Teachers Association had two ballot law specialists, two more attorneys, a $150-an-hour handwriting expert, and about a dozen staffers on hand; we had Steve Epstein, libertarian lawyer whose specialty is defending pot smokers who get caught, and a few volunteers.

The teachers were challenging the signatures on our initiative petition to roll back the income tax rate to 5 percent. We had collected only 81 signatures more than the required 64,928 and they were trying to prove that the 81, along with another 4,000 or so to be safe, had been improperly certified by local registrars of voters.

"Those who know when to fight and when not to fight are victorious."

We readily admitted that we could not hold the 81 signatures. In some cases, the registrars had counted wrong and given us too many. It was clear that some people had signed twice and that others had signed their spouses’ names as well as their own. The teachers issued subpoenas and forced many of the spouses to drive into Boston to admit their beloved’s wrongdoing, even though some were elderly or unwell and our side was willing to concede the improper signature.

"Those who face the unprepared with preparation are victorious."

As soon as we got these frightened hostages released, we prepared a defense of the rest of the attacked signatures. Steve’s arguments were primarily on the constitutional right to petition: If registrars, overseen by the city or town clerk, can identify signers as registered voters in their communities, the signatures should count. Volunteer leaders Sarah and Allen organized the search for these challenged voters among thousands of documents left at the Elections Division by more than 200 city and town clerks, also subpoenaed by our opponents.

"Those whose generals are able and are not constrained by their governments are victorious."

We let Steve run his own show. Brilliant and outrageous, he never missed a chance to attack, but always stopped right on the edge of going too far.

When Judge Robert Hallisey, because of the huge number of signatures being challenged, told the lawyers to work through lunch, Steve passionately objected: "Your Honor, I fail to see why I should miss my lunch because of my brothers’ unpreparedness."—His objection was sustained. When the teachers tried to admit additional pages of complaints, he cried, "How many more trees must die, your Honor?"

Fortunately for Steve, Judge Hallisey has a sense of humor.

When the teachers asked for an extension of the hearing because they couldn’t cover all their challenges in the two weeks allotted, he quoted another judge who replied to a criminal’s complaint that he might not live out his sentence by telling him, "Well, do the best you can."

Steve wasn’t present for the readings from Sun Tzu, but his summation, a quote from John Adams, fit the theme: "When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers and destroyers press upon them so fast that there is no resisting afterwards." When the teachers summed up, the judge referred to the "precious right" of the people to petition, and asked them, "Shouldn’t we try to save as many signatures as we can?"

The commission saved all but 437, stating in its decision that, "whenever possible given the constraints set forth in both case law and former commission decision, the commission erred in favor of the voter."

The State Ballot Commission can only subtract signatures, not add them.

As the two office staffers, volunteers and I assisted Steve in saving as many attacked signatures as we could, co-director Chip Ford was directing computer-literate activists to find voter signatures that town clerks had rejected. We will be taking more than 1,500 of these to Superior Court to have the petition reinstated.

We expect to prevail. Sun Tzu said, "Those whose upper and lower ranks have the same desire are victorious," and Commander Steve Epstein and the volunteers share this desire; to defend passionately the initiative petition process that they love, and place the income tax issue on the 1998 ballot for the voters to decide.
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Barbara Anderson is co-director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government. Her column appears bi-weekly.

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You can e-mail A Promise to Keep: 5% at --> cltg@cltg.org
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