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Massachusetts Regulations § 950 CMR 48.07 Filing State Ballot Question Petitions with the Secretary of the Commonwealth

⤴ Up to Title 950 CMR 48.00: State Ballot Question Petitions

Regulation Text

(1) The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall review all submitted petitions forms to ensure that each petition form contains the signatures of three or more Registrars of Voters. Petition forms which fail to contain the signatures of three or more Registrars of Voters will not be counted towards the total number of required signatures. The signatures contained on such petition forms will be designated as "uncertified."
(2) The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall review all submitted petition forms for extraneous markings and compliance with exact copy requirements. Signatures contained on petition forms which have extraneous markings, or signatures contained on petition forms which are not exact copies, will not be counted towards the total number of required signatures. The signatures contained on such petition forms will be designated as "disqualified."
(a) Examples of extraneous markings include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. highlighting;
2. underlining;
3. scribbles;
4. doodles;
5. instructional language ( i.e . "over" or "see other side");
6. the name or initials of the circulator; or
7. the telephone number of the circulator.
(b) Examples of petition forms which are not exact copies include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. the paper size or color is different than that prepared by the Secretary;
2. the original text is missing or altered;
3. the petition form is one which was sent by facsimile;
4. the petition form contains printing on only one side;
5. the petition form contains two front sides, and therefore there is no box for the Registrars of Voters to certify the number of signatures certified signatures contained thereon; or
6. the petition form contains a different number of signature lines than the number on the original petition form as prepared by the Secretary.
(3) The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall thereafter review all submitted petition forms to determine the total number of certified signatures.
(4) The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall review all submitted petition forms to ensure that no more than ¼ of the total number of required signatures is from any one county. The number of certified signatures in excess in any one county shall be designated as "disallowed."

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