[Platform] draft campaign guide

[BillCunningham]

Hi yall, Sorry for the delay and hope I haven't left anyone out. In addition to the below, Peter Sacks tells me that he has texts of IRV and Single-Payer advisories from past elections. He suggests that those might provide shortcuts to vetting the same issues this year.

*D*R*AF*T*    GRP/ABWG GUIDE, 2008 ADVISORY PUBLIC POLICY BALLOT QUESTIONS

Public policy advisory questions may appear on the ballot in a State legislative district. Thus your campaign will deal with some State agencies:

• the Office of the Attorney General 
• the Elections Division, Secretary of the Commonwealth 
• the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF), Secretary of the Commonwealth

The signatures on your petitions must be certified in the city or town where the signers are registered to vote. Thus your campaign will deal with local election officials:

• the Election Commission (usual in a city) or the Town Clerk (usual in a town)

You should read and understand the Election Division’s new guide to Public Policy Question Petitions. This document is available online at

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepubpol/pubpol.htm


THE QUESTION

You have to decide on the exact wording of the question you want to appear on the district ballot.  The question should be written in the form of a short instruction to the legislator who represents the district.  The usual wording begins “Shall the (state senator or rep) from this district be insructed to vote in favor of…”

After you have formulated your question you will want to run it by the  State Attorney General’s office for comment. Your campaign should designate ONE person to contact Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks at

Peter.Sacks at state.ma.us

Sacks has done this vetting work under several Attorneys General. He views his job as helping to get you on the ballot. The vetting process is best carried on through email exchanges.  The result is not guaranteed, but makes a legal challenge to your petition very unlikely.

THE PETITIONS

After your campaign has approved the final wording, you will be ready to print your question on petitions.  The Elections Division has prepared the petition format which you are required to use.  Call them at (617) 727-2828 to obtain copies.

On the TOP HALF of the petition sheet your campaign fills in THREE pieces of information:  (1) Title of District, (2) Kind of District (checkoff), (3) text of the Question.

On the BOTTOM of each petition sheet you fill in the town and city in which that sheet’s signers vote. Most representative and senate districts inlcude part of more than one town. You will bring the signed petitions to the various local election officials who will certify signatures only for their town or city.

The petition forms supplied by the Elections Division actually include most of the information you need to know: deadlines for submitting petitions, no doodles or erasures allowed, etc. Signature gatherers should review the summary given at

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleguide/guidechklst.htm

As the summary guide says, two hundred valid signatures of registered voters are required to place your question on the ballot in your state representative’s district. Some of the signatures you submit are sure to be invalid for one reason or another. For this reason we recommend that you submit 50 percent more than the required minimum, or 300 signatures in a representative district.

Here are two legal issues you will want to be aware of

Walsh v Secretary of the Commonwealth, SJC-07986.
In 1999, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that any extraneous markings, doodles, margin notes or stains will automatically invalidate petition sheets for state ballot questions.  IN PRACTICE this means that you should

Batchelder v. Allied Stores Int'l, Inc., 445 N.E.2d 590, 595 (Mass. 1983)
In 1983, the SJC determined that individuals could gather signatures for electoral purposes at private shopping centers—but petitioning must be “reasonable in time, place, and manner." 


CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
 

Because of political finance laws, you will need a Ballot Question Committee to sponsor your public policy question. Organizing and registering a Ballot Quesion Committee with the OCPF are practically the same thing. Before your Ballot Question Committee can raise or spend any money, it must register with OCPF. The registration Form CPF 101 BQ  may be downloaded at

http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/forms/cpf_101_bq.pdf

Form CPF 101 BQ requires a statement of your Committee’s purpose. This should be worded broadly enough to cover publicizing and advocating for your question both during and directly after the election.

The Form also requires that your Committee have a chair and a treasurer. Both offices may be filled by the same person. The key office is really the treasurer, who keeps the Committee’s accounts and files the twice-a-month reports with OCFP. 

This is not very complicated, mainly keeping track of all contributions and expenditures.  The details are explained in OCPF’s Campaign Finance Guide, which may be downloaded at

http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/guides/guide_state_bqc.pdf 

A single Ballot Question Committee may sponsor the same question in more than one district. 

MOVING THE PETITIONS AROUND

You are responsible for delivering the signed petitions to your town and city election officials for certification. This year, the deadline for submitting the petitions to your local officials is Wednesday, July 9.  

DON’T WAIT FOR THE DEADLINE! Submit early so that if there is a snag, you will have time to gather more signatures if needed.

You are also responsible for picking up the certified petitions from your local officials and and delivering them to:

ELECTIONS DIVISION, 17th floor of the McCormack Building at One Ashburton Place, off Bowdoin Street near the rear of the State House in Boston. (617) 727-2828

This year, the deadline for delivery to the Elections Division is Wednesday, August 6, Hiroshima Day. 

DON’T WAIT FOR THE DEADLINE! Only three public policy questions are allowed on the ballot and the rule is: First come, first served.


ORGANIZING

As soon as you are ready to get signatures, you should have a brochure explaining the public policy proposal, the purpose of your campaign, and how to contact and help.

After the petition has secured a place on the ballot, you should plan one or more events, such as a public forum or a film showing, to help promote thecampaign and draw people in to the work. This is also a good place to develop a GRP local and for allied groups to build up their membership.

>From the beginning, the campaign should be writing letters to the editor, op-eds, and seeking appearances on local radio and cable TV outlets.

To facilitate coordination with the GRP, locals or individual members should sumit the following information:

Date: 
Title of Question: 
Topic of Question: 
Name and contact info for question coordinator:  
Name of person who will serve as treasurer for ballot committee:  
Name of person who will serve as chair of ballot committee:  
Name of person on AB WG who will serve as liaison:
Current draft of question text:
Word count of question text:
Status of vetting with Attorney General [Who is responsible?]: 

Explain why this proposed question is good for organizing, outreach, activation of citizens, and producing needed public policy changes:

District targeting strategy [In which districts would there be sufficient public support and sufficient volunteers for the question to succeed?  If specific districts are being targeted, identify them.]:

Participating Organizations and Status [List organization name and indicate status as follows:
A - Have given official approval to participating
B - Have given unofficial approval to participating
C - Have indicated support, but no firm commitment yet
D - Have indicated interest
E -  Likely to support, but no contact has been made.
F -  May support.  Worth contacting.]


Names of persons who have volunteered to collect signatures or organize signature effort:

         NAME                DISTRICT (Town/Representative)

Additional relevant information:

This information should be sent to John Andrews, Advisory Ballot Working Group, (ABWG)

jandrews166 at gmail.com

* * *


Secretary of the Commonwealth division addresses:

	OFFICE OF CAMPAIGN AND POLITICAL FINANCE (OCPF), Room 411, 4th floor  (617) 727-8352 http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/

	ELECTIONS DIVISION, Room 1705, 17th floor (617) 727-2828 http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleidx.htm

Both are in the McCormack Building at One Ashburton Place, Boston 02108, off Bowdoin Street near the rear of the State House 






Bill Cunningham