HAPPY HOUR, FIREWORKS ON BALLOT
The attorney general’s office has certified 16 ballot proposals that could legalize voter ID, happy hour and fireworks sales, and spike the state’s participation in a controversial regional plan to cut carbon emissions.
The list of certified ballot initiatives was released on Wednesday, a major step in the path to the 2022 ballot. Also certified was a constitutional amendment that could go before voters as early as 2024 that would authorize no-excuse absentee voting.
Another potential ballot question backed by bigmoney, big-tech companies would classify app-based gig workers like those who drive for Uber, Lyft, Grubhub and others as independent contractors and guarantee them some benefits.
In a statement from the Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work, driver Brittney Woods of Boston said voters should “support what drivers are asking for: to remain independent contractors, in control of our own schedules, while gaining new benefits. That flexibility and control is why we drive.”
One question would bar restriction or reduction of gas, something the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) aims to do in order to reach its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 26% by 2032.
Transportation for Massachusetts, a collaborative of organizations that support TCI, said in a statement, “The ballot question proposed by TCI opponents threatens our environment, our health, and our transportation.”
Attorney General Maura Healey nixed a dozen of the 28 ballot question proposals and one of the two constitutional amendments filed with her office last month.
But it’s still a long road to the polls for the questions still in play. Proposals certified by Healey’s office will be filed next with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office, kickstarting efforts by the campaigns behind them to collect the 80,239 voter signatures to be filed with local election officials in November and then with Galvin by Dec. 1.
Opponents can also ask the Supreme Judicial Court to review Healey’s certification rulings. A legal battle is expected for at least one of the rejected questions so far.
Massachusetts Newborn Protection Coalition Chairwoman Bernadette Lyons has vowed to appeal Healey’s decision not to allow a question that would have asked voters to amend existing abortion laws to ensure babies born alive are given lifesaving medical care.
In a denial letter, Healey called the phrasing “ambiguous.”
Lyons shot back in a statement, calling the ruling “an insult to the intelligence of Massachusetts voters that they cannot comprehend what a child born alive is.”
MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons, the chairwoman’s husband, said there’s “absolutely no question” the Democratic AG’s decision was based on her pro-abortion politics, which Healey denied. MassGOP backs the question.