Far-Reaching Election Reforms to be Debated Today
By Amy Lambiaso for the State House News Service
       Lawmakers on Tuesday will review a slate of constitutional amendments that would change the way state and congressional districts are drawn, create new voting opportunities, and require more signatures to get a referendum on the statewide ballot.
       The changes are among 13 proposals to change the state constitution to be heard by the Election Laws Committee. And while several of the proposals have been considered in the past, there are a few new issues for the 2005-2006 session.
       Following last year’s prolonged debate on how a successor to US Sen. John Kerry would have been chosen had Kerry been elected president, Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees has filed a bill to have the state’s constitutional officers replaced in a similar fashion – by special
election. His bill (S 8) would require the governor to schedule a special
election within six months to fill a vacancy in the offices of secretary of
state, treasurer, attorney general and auditor.
       Currently, vacancies in those offices are filled with the choice of the House and Senate meeting jointly. That person serves the remainder of the term.
       “If it’s good for the US Senate, it certainly should be good for
constitutional officers,” Lees said. “It would be hypocritical if it didn’t. They want to have the people decide, right? Certainly the same logic should apply here.”
       During Kerry’s run for president last year, the Legislature changed the
state law to require a new senator be chosen by special election, rather
than have the governor appoint a successor. Lees strongly opposed the
effort, but the Democratic-dominated Legislature was able to override Gov. Mitt Romney’s veto. Sen. Edward Augustus (D-Worcester), chairman of the Election Laws Committee, said he was “open minded” to Lees’ proposal and had not yet formed a position. Augustus is sponsoring his own constitutional amendment to allow for unconditional absentee ballot voting.
       Introduced at a League of Women’s Voters event here several weeks ago, the proposal, co-sponsored by co-chairman Rep. Anthony Petruccelli (D-East Boston), would enable all registered voters to cast ballots by mail. The only voters who may presently submit an absentee ballot are those who are disabled, out of town on Election Day, or whose religious beliefs interfere with their ability to vote.
       Constitutional amendments may be considered during a joint session of the House and Senate known as a Constitutional Convention. Amendments must be approved by two successive conventions to be placed on a statewide ballot for voter consideration. An amendment introduced this year could reach the 2008 ballot at the earliest.
       A new proposal this year (S 13), sponsored by Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst), would nearly double the number of signatures required for residents to place an initiative petition on the ballot as a referendum and create a commission to draft the language for the ballot question. Presently, after collecting the required 10 signatures to get the process rolling, petitioners must gather more than 65,000 signatures, or 3 percent of the votes cast during the last gubernatorial election, to have their petition advanced to the Secretary of State’s office for the drafting of a ballot question. The change would base the number of required signatures on the number of registered voters, rather than the turnout.
       Rosenberg said the state’s signature requirement is not keeping pace with the growing population. His proposal would strike a balance between making the petition process too easy and making it impossible to advance an issue, he said. “We’re trying to re-establish the same ratio of the number of signatures as would have been required 50 years ago had the population been at this level,” he said. “Many other states have much higher standards than what I’m asking for today.”
       Rosenberg is also proposing (S 14) to require an election within six months of a vacancy occurring on the eight-member Governor’s Council. There is currently a process for filling a vacancy, but no timetable, he said.
Common Cause Massachusetts, a grassroots government watchdog group, is pushing for an end to gerrymandering, or dividing congressional and state districts to give one party an advantage. Their bill (S 12) would create an independent commission to draw districts, which are now drawn by the Legislature.
       Augustus said he supports changing the district-drawing procedure for state legislators, but has concerns about assigning the job of redrawing congressional districts because he fears Massachusetts could risk giving up its Democrat majority. Republican-dominated states such as Texas and Utah are not changing their procedures, he said, “so why should we?”
       “They keep rules that benefit them – I’m not sure that I like that,” he
said. “If the whole country was going to do it at once, then it would be a
level playing field. But it’s not.”
       Other bills scheduled for consideration Tuesday: require the permission of the original 10 filers of an initiative petition to repeal or change the implementation of a law ratified by the voters (Hedlund, S 14); increase a legislator’s term from two to four years (Moore, S 11); and allow cities and towns to allow absentee voting for any reason (Moore, S 9).
       Tuesday’s Election Laws hearing is at 1 pm in Room A-1.