Transgender, Citizens United, and nurse/patient questions headed to November ballot in Massachusetts

Three questions are headed to Massachusetts voters in November.

Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin today announced the questions that will appear on the November 6, 2018 State Election ballot. Any local ballot questions would follow these three questions.

Question #1: Patient-to-Nurse Limits
Question #2: Commission on Limiting Election Spending and Corporate Rights
Question #3: Transgender Anti-Discrimination

According to Massachusetts Secretary William  Galvin, questions 1 and 2 have been certified by his office after petitioners submitted their final round of signatures last week. Petitioners were required to submit 10,792 certified signatures by July 3rd.

Question 1, if passed, would limit how many patients could be assigned to each registered nurse in Massachusetts hospitals and certain other health care facilities.

Question 2, if passed, would create a commission to consider and recommend potential amendments to the United States Constitution to establish that corporations do not have the same Constitutional rights as human beings and that campaign contributions and expenditures may be regulated (also known as Citizens United).

Question 3 is a proposed referendum on the state’s Transgender Anti-Discrimination Law, which was passed in 2016. A sufficient number of signatures to place the referendum on the 2018 ballot were filed shortly after the bill was signed into law. A “yes” vote on the referendum would keep in place the current law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity in places of public accommodation. A “no” vote would repeal this provision of the public accommodation law.

Each ballot question will be accompanied by a summary of the proposed law and statements at the end of the summary explaining what a yes vote and a no vote would mean. The statements, which Galvin had added into state law to make ballot questions more understandable, will be of particular importance with the referendum, due to the wording required by the state constitution.

With the submission of the signatures and assignment of numbers for the questions, the preparation of the Information for Voters booklet that is delivered to every household in Massachusetts will be under way.