To get on the ballot, each Democratic candidate for statewide office needs to get both 15% of the delegate vote at the state convention on June 2-3, and a certain number of certified signatures from voters:
- Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General: 10,000 signatures
- Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor: 5,000 signatures
Only signatures from registered voters who are eligible to vote for the candidate will be certified. For these candidates, that means any registered Democrat or “unenrolled” (no party) voter in Massachusetts.
The Timeline
Voters sign on nominating petition forms supplied by the state Elections Division, and there are several steps each sheet of signatures goes through:
- Campaign fills in candidate information and distributes petition sheets to volunteers
- Voters sign their name and address
- Volunteers turn sheets in to city and town clerks offices for certification
- Cities and towns determine which signatures come from qualified registered voters
- Volunteers pick sheets up from clerk’s office and return them to the campaign
- Campaign submits certified sheets to state Elections Division for final certification
It might vary a little. For example, some volunteers turn their sheets in to the campaign before getting signatures certified with their city or town clerk – but at this late stage, if you’re collecting signatures at home and far from the campaign office, turning your sheets in yourself might make the difference between meeting the deadline or not.
Speaking of deadlines, May 9th at 5pm is for turning the sheets in to clerks’ offices. They have a deadline themselves: they must finish certifying by May 30th. And all of the completed, certified sheets have to be in at the Elections Division by June 6th. The time between May 30th and June 6th is there to allow for challenges and appeals, which usually aren’t necessary.
Rules for Signatures and Petitions
You must use a nominating petition of exactly the size and design supplied by the Elections Division. Even a simple photocopying mistake, like flipping the front and back sides, might disqualify the sheet. Most campaigns will happily supply you with as many blank sheets as you ask for… or more đŸ™‚
For the signatures you collect to be valid, follow these rules and guidelines:
- Each sheet has a space for a city or town name. Write the same city/town name in the space provided on both the front and the back. Only signatures from voters in that city/town count on this sheet; all others will be disqualified.
- No Stray Marks. Voters must sign within the space provided. Write the city/town name in the box. Make no other marks anywhere on the sheet. Don’t cross out mistakes.
- To correct any mistake, have the voter sign again on the next line. Two signatures from the same voter are okay: one will be certified, the other will not. If a voter isn’t sure of their registered address (for example, if they moved in the past year and don’t remember whether they re-registered), have them sign twice, once with each address. Do not cross out mistakes – the bad lines just won’t be certified.
- Each voter must sign legibly so that their clerk can recognize their name. Pay attention! If a voter’s signature is not legible, ask them to print their name, or just their last name, next to / above their signature in the same box. Make sure their address is legible, too. The law directs registrars to certify the signature if they can reasonably determine the identity of the signature. Often, they will look it up by address first, then try to match the voters’ signature to the one they have on file.
- There are columns for ward and precinct. It’s okay to leave those blank. If the voter is not sure of their ward and precinct, leave them blank.
- There’s a “check” column. It’s for the city and town clerks to mark which signatures were certified. Leave it blank!
- [update] Signing doesn’t mean supporting the candidate. In fact, voters are allowed to sign nomination papers for competing candidates. If you want to sign for Reilly, Patrick, and Gabrieli, that’s fine, and your signature will be certified for all of them. Signing just helps get the candidate on the ballot, that’s all.
For an official reference, download a copy of Don’t Just Stand There, Run from the Elections Division web site. Finally, know your rights:
Both the Massachusetts and United States Constitutions protect the right to solicit signatures on nomination papers […] in a reasonable and unobtrusive manner in open public areas. This includes the public areas of municipal property as well as the common areas of privately owned shopping areas. […] The right of signature solicitation […] on municipal sidewalks, in parks, and in other similar open public areas is clear.
How and Where to do it
It’s more fun with a friend, or with a group of volunteers. If you contact your candidate’s campaign, they may be able to tell you where people are gathering signatures. For example, PDC and DFA Cambridge members will be collecting signatures for John Bonifaz together at Harvard Square’s MayFair this weekend. If you’re picking your own location, here are a few characteristics that make for a good spot:
- Steady pedestrian traffic: A city park may look good because there are a lot of people there, but if it’s the same 40 people there for a whole afternoon, you’re not going to get more than 40 signatures. Look for places people move through, not places where most people are lingering.
- Local: If you collect at downtown crossing in Boston, chances are every other voter who wants to sign will need a new sheet, because they come from all over the state. While you’re writing down Chelmsford or Wakefield or Plymouth on the front and back of a new sheet, you’ll miss other voters as they walk by. Eventually, you’ll have so many sheets you’ll have a hard time finding the right ones for people to sign on. And then you’ll need to get them to the campaign in time to mail them all out to all of those cities and towns. Very impractical! Instead, find somewhere that draws mostly people from the same one or two cities or towns. Don’t bother getting signatures from the few people you find who live somewhere else – you can better use that time approaching other voters, and filling up the sheets for the towns you’re focusing on.
- Bored or Interested: At many locations, people will just walk by, or try to avoid you. Find a place where people are likely to be interested – for example, a political gathering; or a place where people are relaxed or waiting around and not in a hurry, such as an outdoor arts festival.
A lot of people prefer supermarket parking lots. Those aren’t bad. You get a steady stream of people coming and going, and if you pick the right supermarket, they’ll mostly be local. If you catch them on the way in, chances are they won’t mind giving you a moment of their time.
Personally, I prefer bus stops. I think they’re the ideal petitioning location. Pick a bus stop that has fairly frequent buses at the time you’re there, and you’ll get a steady stream of people
. But half those people, the ones coming to get on a bus, will arrive 5-10 minutes before their bus, so they’ll just be standing around killing time. They’re not in a hurry and they don’t have anything better to do than to read whatever you hand them. If you have a bunch of flyers about your candidate, hand them out to everyone, then go back collecting signatures. And, of course, based on the bus stop you pick, you can pretty well determine which cities most of the passengers reside in. Don’t assume this is just for urban areas; I’ve had some very good luck collecting signatures at the central bus stop in North Adams, for example.
If you’re collecting in a heavily Democratic area – which is just about every urban area in the state, most of Boston’s suburbs, and most of the Pioneer Valley and Berkshires – it may not be worth your time to ask people what their party registration is. Chances are, if you don’t ask, the large majority of signers will be Democrats or unenrolled anyway. If you do ask, you may end up taking more time per voter, especially if they wonder why you want to know. If that means you miss other people walking by, it may be a net loss to you.
[update] As purplemouse reminds us, carry some voter registration forms with you. I always have some, so I don’t think of it as something special to do when collecting signatures. Some things to keep in mind:
- To be sure someone’s signature will count, their registration form must reach their city/town clerk before your petition sheet with their signature.
- If you just give someone a form, chances are they will forget to fill it out or send it in, or not do it in time to count. It’s more effective to put the form on a clipboard, have them fill it out, and tell them you’ll hand carry it to city hall for them. If you do that, make sure they fill it out correctly, and don’t add corrections of your own.
- However, if you’re working alone, the time you spend taking someone’s voter registration is time you may miss several other signers during. So just give them the form and assume their signature won’t be certified. On the other hand, if you’re getting signatures from friends, definitely take the time to register them! đŸ™‚
Getting Them Certified
Bring your petitions to your city or town clerk’s office or elections department before the deadline. If you can’t do that on Tuesday before 5pm, find out now what their Monday hours are! Also, even though they’re almost always at city hall, in some places (such as Cambridge) the elections department is located in another building. Look them up on the web or call ahead to make sure you’re going to the right place.
This is probably obvious, but only give each city signatures from that city! Don’t expect a city to certify sheets for another city.
When you turn your sheets in, you’ll be given a receipt that states how many sheets, and how many “raw” signatures you turned in. Keep this receipt. When you come back later this month to collect them, bring your receipt with you, and collect the sheets.
Although they have until May 30th, in my experience most of them certify signatures much more quickly. Your sheets may be ready in a day or two. They may call you when they’re ready, but if May 30th is getting near and they haven’t called, call them and ask.
And, of course, return the certified sheets to your campaign promptly! Or, check with them, and take the signatures to the state Elections Division in downtown Boston yourself.
(Disclosure: I’m the campaign blogger for John Bonifaz. But I hope that you’ll collect for any one – or more – of the statewide candidates this weekend. If you do collect for Bonifaz, please comment on John’s blog and tell us about it!)
This weekend, DFA Cambridge will join Progressive Democrats of Cambridge in gathering signatures for John Bonifaz, to help him get on the ballot as a candidate for Secretary of the Commonwealth.
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To participate, email Lesley Phillips at lrphillips (at) rocketmail (dot) com; after 7 pm Friday or on the weekend, you may call her at 810-394-1317.
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Saturday: Locations and times will be determined based on the number of people available to help; email or call Lesley for more information.
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Sunday: Meet at 1 pm at Darwin’s, 1629 Cambridge St. We will be focusing on the Harvard Square Mayfair which draw a huge crowd! If you are not available right at 1:00, call Lesley on her cell.
I’ll bet there are more than a few readers wishing you posted this a month ago.
and like Frank, I wish I’d had this handy post a month ago.
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I’ve gathered a few dozen signatures for Deval, Kennedy, Silbert and Bonifaz, and turned the raw sigs in to the campaigns. First time I’ve even done sig-gathering. Many people who seemed to accept the idea that newcomers such as Deval would need signatures were surprised that an old warhorse like Kennedy needed to collect 10K each time he ran.
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And I agree with Cos about bus stops. They can be very productive.
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What intro lines have people used? I stuck with, “Hello, would you like to help a Democrat get on the ballot?” because I thought it helped screen out Republican voters. But then, there aren’t many Republicans where I stood.
I always use “Hi, are you a registered voter?” I know a lot of people who are probably registered voters just say no to not have to be bothered, but oftentimes without it I get people to sign before they realize that they’re not registered even at all. Also, sometimes it helps that I don’t start off partisan for people who have never heard of Deval.
It also works because it’s a simple question people can answer “yes” to. Once they’ve given you one “yes”, it’s a lot easier to get them to listen to the somewhat more involved question of whether they’d sign the nomination form.
…and I seldom asked if they were Democrats. Of course I was only collecting signatures at the cacauses or Dem forums. The well eventually runs pretty dry there and I broadened my foot print to local town meetings where everyone was a registered voter. Nope, I left the supermarkets to other folks.
If you
re collecting sigs for Democratic candidates, youve got 85% of the population, any one not registered R, (and if for a Republican you`ve got 65% of the population who can validly sign)I find it funny people just assume Ted Kennedy can automatically run again đŸ™‚
WHY?
I think the main reason that non-major party and independent candidates don
t need to get the signatures as early is that they arent going to be competing a primary in September. Right now, D and R are the ones with major party status, which has made things a bit easier for the GRP this year in having time to get signatures without the largescale established support network. Same reasons for Christy Mihos.State law regarding the ballot doesn’t make a distrinction between “major” and “minor” parties. It makes a distinction between parties, and non-party, basically.
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The Green Party lost its ballot status in 2004 because no statewide Green candidate received enough votes, so as far as state law is concerned, it’s not an official party. That means there will be no Green primary on September 19th, and Green candidates run just like independents in the general election.
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On the other hand, the Libertarian Party, which nobody considers “major”, retained its ballot status. You can still check off “Libertarian” on voter registration forms, there will be a Libertarian primary on September 19th, and candidates who want to run as Libertarians must meet the party deadlines (May 2nd for district races, May 9th for statewide races).
I’m fairly sure that the Libertarians also lost ballot access in 2004, so they and the Greens became political designation not political parties, which IMO is really a distinction between minor and major party. However, I’m also fairly sure both Libertarian (L) and Green-Rainbow (J) are supposed to be listed on voter registration forms, though last August when I changed my registration address, the form had only D R and L, so i figured it was an older form (pre-02 or 00)
I think topics like this really make bluemassgroup stand out as the go-to blog on Mass politics. Even the most prominent national blogs like dailykos and redstate (which I read for counter-intelligence) rarely have content this useful at a grassroots level.
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I did sigs for the Silbert campaign, which was my first time. I used “Would you help get a Democrat on the ballot for lieutenant governor” because, a) it filtered Republicans; b) it got an instant yes from bread-and-butter Dems; and c) it got straight to the ask while offering little to say “no” to.
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Any starter can work if you’re comfortable with it. Some ask “are you a registered voter.” I don’t prefer that because it suggests the start of a long conversation, i.e. how much more biographical info does this person plan to ask me before he gets to the point. But that’s just my preference. Others would mention the candidate’s name: “Would you sign Andrea Silbert’s nomination papers…” I avoid naming the candidate unless asked, because talking about the specific candidate gives a person an opportunity to ask more questions and, worst of all, say “no”. Again, some may take a different approach. tend to be direct: the less I have to talk to get the signature, the better đŸ™‚
I have been collecting signatures sice I could walk the neighborhood with my parents some 30-odd years ago. The answer to the most frequent questions is that by signing, you are allowing the candidate to be on the ballot. You do not need to vote for or support the candidate. The signature only means that she or he can appear on the ballot.
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Also depending on your location or neighborhood signing, you can often skip the “Hi, are you a registered voter?” Only half of the signatures may be valid, but it also destigmatizes signing as people need not be ashamed to admit that are not registered (and it does not give them the instant “out” by saying no). A simple “Hi, I am collecting signatures to for candidate X” or “Hi, I am collecting signatures to get candidate X on the ballot” works well.
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A campaign colleague mentioned recently that she keeps some voter registration forms with her and distributes them to the non-registered while collecting signatures. Great idea!
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I also find it handly to keep a notebook handy to jot down notes and questions from respondents. Signature-gatherers are a front-line, face-to-face opportunity for a candidate/campaign to meet the public. Taking a note and saying “I will check into that” or “I will have someone get back to you” is VERY valuable to a campaign, especially a more local one. Even taking names of people who wish to be removed from mailing lists is valuable.
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Finally, note that campaigns often use the data collected on signature papers. Two ideas are keeping track of names of potential supporters–and thus potential donors; and following up with non-certified names in case they are not registered.
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Oh, yes! I should’ve mentioned that, I’ll update the post. I actually always keep voter registration forms with me, so I don’t think of that as something special for when I’m collecting signatures.
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It’s not necessarily something you want to do while out at a public place, because the time spent registering could come at the cost of a number of signatures, but if you’re working with a friend or a group, one of you can go aside with a clipboard and register the voter. If you’re alone, just give them the form – even though it means the chances they’ll fill it out and return it, especially in time for their signature to be certified, are very small. On the other hand, if you have petitions with you, you can also get signatures when visiting friends, at parties, etc., and there you’ll definitely want to take the time to register people.
You do not need to vote for or support the candidate.
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Right! Another thing I meant to include but forgot: It’s okay to sign nomination papers for candidates running against each other. Thanks for the reminder, now to update my post…
I got 14 today for JB. I got some at a brunch event and some at Somerville Open Studios. I had a lot to do today and I just carry the papers with me wherever I go and ask whoever I come across. I was running all over today and spent some time in Brookline too, but didn’t get any there today.
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I rarely start the conversation with “Are you a registered voter” because I think at this point that gives them a glazed over look. If they are registered they might think you are asking them to register and they’ll keep walking.
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I do use the candidate name and party in my opening sentence and if they say I’ve never heard of them I have my information sheet right there ready for them to see.
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This past week I’ve been telling people that the signatures are due and that this weekend is the last chance we have to get them and that puts a sense of urgency on it and makes them feel sympathetic towards me and they sign. đŸ™‚
As a minor correction, the Libertarian Party did not maintain major party status in 2004, because Michael Badnarik did not receive 3% of the vote for his statewide office (President). You can also become a major party by having 1% of the registered voters enroll in your party, which is fine if you are a Democrat, a bit more challenging if you are a Republican, and not the case for Green, Libertarian, or around a dozen other ‘Party Designations’. Greens and Libertarians may credibly add ‘yet’ to ‘not the case’, because both parties had registrations climbing toward 1% when last I heard.
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However, you can register to vote in any of these parties or party designations by checking the box by your party name, or as appropriate by checking ‘Other’ and writing the name. You may find Registration forms that let you check Libertarian, or Green or Libertarian. These are old forms still in circulation, though state and town offices ought to have replaced them, but so far as I know they continue to be valid.
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In 2006 there will be Greens on the ballot for statewide office, looking for their 3% of the vote. There may be another party, though I have not heard about one. There will not be any Libertarian candidates for statewide office so far as I know.
This should be in the posting Hall of Fame here at BMG. Very helpful!
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My lead off when collecting signatures is: “Good ____ (morning, afternoon) and a big smile. I have nomination papers for ______. Are you registered to vote?
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Being friendly is helpful, and puts folks at ease. Many people were suspicious of being tricked into signing because of the hullabaloo over the SSM petitions. Folks should make sure they know what they’re signing. But those nutbags sure don’t make our job any easier.