On April 8, three Massachusetts major party candidates filed a lawsuit in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, asking that the number of signatures for primary petitions be reduced due to the health crisis. They are Kevin O’Connor, a Republican running for U.S. Senate; Robbie Goldstein, a Democrat running for U.S. House; and Melissa Bower Smith, a Democrat running for the state house. See this story.
The case is Goldstein v Galvin, SJ2020-150. Justice Cypher has referred the case to the full court. Here is the Emergency Petition_MA_SJC for Relief.
My name is Robert Underwood. I collecting signatures to run in the Ninth Hampden House district. I need 150. I had about 50 before the pandemic struck.
February 11 was the official beginning of the time period where candidates have to get signatures to get their names on the ballot. It really takes a week later than that date to get the voting list from the city, in my case Springfield, MA. In the past I have gotten about 30% of the vote.
I running as an un-enrolled. After several weeks into petitioning season the coronavirus broke out in the USA and in Massachusetts. President Trump spoke on the news on a Sunday afternoon. In a nutshell he told of what he was doing about the outbreak, and there was no need to panic buy because everything would continue to work. Two hours later Governor Baker came on the news and announced various shutdown orders. In short he acted like we were in a panic. The following day I went to Costco. You could not move in the store. Panic buyers had cleaned the shelves of meat, canned goods, and toilet paper.
Since then at least once a week Governor Baker announces yet more restrictions. For instance, now Walmart has the clothing section roped off with a sign saying it is “non-essential.”
This effects the voting pubic. They will not even answer their door. My helper, who has since quit, reported the same experience. Every week there is another panic message. The latest are the amber alert signs on I-91 that advise 14 days of self quarantine if you enter Massachusetts. It makes no sense because a person driving from the Canadian border to New York City would drive through MA in an hour. But it serves to keep the panic level up. Some of them are not even picking up their mail.
The lawsuit needs to be expanded to cover un-enrolled candidates.
I might also add that in several past elections , had I not been running, there would have been only one candidate on the ballot.
Clothing is non-essential. Great for some, not for others!
The only ***essential*** stuff for the MONSTERS in POWER is the stuff essential to stay in POWER.
IE USA hacks now just as evil rotted as old BC killer monarchs/oligarchs ??? Duh.
@RJU
It appears that the lawsuit only covers primary candidates, and even if sustained would only help them. Since you are running unenrolled, you may be left out, unless you can get a sympathetic lawyer to join the suit.
On upon close reading, it appears that, altho the suit was filed on behalf of primary candidates, the request for relief was broad enough to apply to all candidates.