Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation alleges fraudulent signature gathering, urges duped voters to come forward
It’s an unfortunate near-certainty that prohibitionists who are trying to end recreational cannabis in the Bay State will have their referendum placed on this November’s ballot. That despite questionable signature-gathering activity reported in this outlet and others.
But while certain parties are already preparing for a months-long fight on that front, some adult-use cannabis interests are throwing a Hail Mary in an attempt to stop the initiative before it advances any further. According to a media release, this week “a group of business leaders, advocates, and community stakeholders launched a campaign against attempts to make adult use cannabis sales and homegrow illegal again.” Their claim: “The misguided initiative would endanger public health and safety by putting the Massachusetts cannabis market back under the control of criminal networks.”
On Friday, Jan. 2, a group billing itself as the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation filed a formal objection with the state’s ballot law commission “to challenge the certification of signatures in support of the proposed ballot question.” For the effort, attorneys are “citing multiple sworn affidavits from Massachusetts voters alleging deceptive and fraudulent signature-gathering practices.”
The committee is also “urging Massachusetts residents who believe they were misled or deceived while being asked to sign a cannabis-related petition to come forward” and “report instances of alleged signature-gathering fraud at committeetoprotectcannabisregulation.com.”
“The evidence shows a troubling pattern of signature gathering built on misrepresentation and deception,” Tom Kiley, CEK Boston P.C. and the objector in the filing, said in the statement. “This objection is about ensuring that only lawfully and honestly obtained signatures are certified.”
The media release also noted: “The group behind the ballot initiative, Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, aims to halt all recreational marijuana sales, prohibit non-medical home grow, and make marijuana illegal again. In order to move forward in the process, the group had to submit at least 74,574 valid voter signatures to the Secretary of State’s office for certification by December 3. … If the necessary number of signatures are ultimately certified by the Secretary of State’s office, the petition moves forward to the Legislature for action. If no action is taken, proponents will need to collect 12,429 additional signatures beginning in the first week of May.
“According to the objection, paid signature gatherers at Market Basket facilities in Plymouth, Whole Foods in Weymouth and in parking lots around Gillette Stadium in Foxborough misled voters with respect to what they were signing and thus obtained signatures fraudulently. Among the misleading statements were assertions that the law proposed on the petition they were signing would get fentanyl off the streets, provide affordable housing in their communities or fund public parks.”
“Based on multiple sworn affidavits and consistent accounts from voters across several communities, it became clear that this was not an isolated incident, but a pattern of deceptive and misleading signature-gathering practices,” Adam Fine, Partner at Vicente LLP and the Chair of the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation, said in the statement. “Voters deserve honesty when they are asked to participate in the ballot process. These allegations warrant further investigation and review to protect the integrity of our elections.”
A spokesperson for the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts fed the following nonsense to MassLive in response to the objection: “We stand behind the integrity of our signatures. … We used professional signature gatherers. They were well-trained. This is a tactic by opponents of the question to try to take it down before it goes to the voters, and we don’t believe it’s a tactic that will work.”
The secretary of the commonwealth hasn’t exactly instilled confidence in the state’s ability to react to such alleged subterfuge. He also seemed to discount the complaints because they’re coming from the marijuana industry. William Galvin told WWLP: “The objectors are based on the people who now are in retail cannabis businesses. … They’ve got to come up with enough signatures knocked off to disqualify the petition. It has to be based on evidence, it can’t be assertions. So it’s going to be a challenge.”
Secretary Galvin added: “You’re talking tens of thousands of signatures, to come up with enough that are going to be disqualified in a short period of time, because the Ballot Law Commission is time limited, 10 days, I think. So good luck. I hope they have a nice time.”
