BACKGROUND

In 2024, the Quincy City Council voted to significantly raise the mayor’s annual salary. Shortly thereafter, a group of citizens in Quincy began circulating an initiative petition for placement on the 2025 municipal ballot to claw back some of that raise. For the petition to be placed on the ballot, proponents needed to submit signatures from at least 8% of registered voters in Quincy. The proponents of the petition cleared that threshold by nearly 2,000 signatures. However, the City Clerk refused to count nearly 2,000 signatures for “illegibility”— even though many of the signers had written their printed name and address right next to their cursive signature. As a result of the Clerk's refusal to count these signatures, the initiative petition failed to meet the threshold for placement on the ballot for the next municipal election.  

ELC represents five registered voters in Quincy who wrote their printed names, addresses, and signatures on the initiative petition, but whose signatures were not counted by the City Clerk. They allege that the City Clerk’s refusal to count their signatures violated the Massachusetts statutes and regulations governing the initiative petition certification process, which required the City Clerk to count all signatures that could be “reasonably determined to be that of a registered voter.”  950 Code Mass. Regs. §55.03(3). In addition, Plaintiffs allege that the City Clerk's actions violated their free speech and equal ballot access rights under articles 9 and 16 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. 

On October 14, Plaintiffs filed their complaint and an emergency petition for a writ of mandamus asking in state court for an order compelling the City Clerk to count their signatures, and the signatures of every signer who could be identified as a registered voter in Quincy. The following day, advanced student Louie Goldsmith—as a student practice attorney certified under Rule 3:03—argued in Norfolk County Superior Court in support of the Plaintiffs’ motion. ELC is awaiting a decision from the court. 

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