Massachusetts is Renovating Democracy
By John Griffin of Partners in Democracy: 18 potential ballot measures to renovate Massachusetts' democracy are moving forward.
John Griffin is the Managing Partner for Advocacy & Strategy at Partners in Democracy. He has experience advising nonprofits, campaigns, and civil society organizations on achieving their policy goals in both Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. He writes about democracy renovation in the state of Massachusetts on the GriffNotes Substack.
2026 is shaping up to be a year of democracy renovation in Massachusetts, the place where the American Revolution began, and just in time for America’s 250th anniversary.
On September 3, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office certified that 44 potential ballot measures are eligible to appear on the ballot in 2026. Each measure will still have to earn the nearly 80,000 voter signatures required for ballot access. Still, this is a record-breaking number of certifications.
A large proportion of these measures focus on democracy. They concern many topics and cover a wide ideological spectrum, but 18 of the 44 measures seek to renovate Massachusetts’s democracy in one way or another.
Massachusetts voters clearly have an appetite for democracy renovation and change. The 2024 legislative audit ballot initiative, the flowering of “No Kings” protests in the Commonwealth, and the increasing proportion of Massachusetts residents dissatisfied with our legislature all point in that direction. This year’s proposed ballot measures carry forward the pattern.
The democracy-related ballot measures approved by the Attorney General (grouped by broad topic) include:
Ballot measures about expanding access to the right to vote:
25-01 Initiative Petition for a Constitutional Amendment Relative to Voting Rights: Rescinds a previous amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution that denied the right to vote to individuals serving felony convictions.
25 -08 Initiative Petition for a Law Relative to Election Day Registration: Allows all eligible voters in Massachusetts to register to vote on Election Day, removing the current requirement that prospective voters register well in advance of voting for a given election.
Ballot measures about changing the way elections work in Massachusetts:
25-12 Initiative Petition for a Law to Implement All-Party State Primaries – Version B: Replaces Massachusetts’s current system of party primaries for state and federal elections with an “all-party primary” system, like that used in many municipal elections, where the primary moves forward to the general election the top two vote-getters regardless of their party affiliation or lack thereof.
25-13 Initiative Petition for a Law to Implement All-Party State Primaries – Version C: Same as the above, with some modifications.
25-20 Initiative Petition for a Proposed Constitutional Amendment – Recall Elections for Statewide, Countywide, and Districtwide Elected Officers: Would allow for recall elections in Massachusetts.
Ballot measures about paying legislators:
25-36: Initiative Petition for an Act to Eliminate Legislative Stipends: Would eliminate the “leadership stipend” system, by which the two chamber leaders of the Massachusetts Legislature can distribute additional pay to the legislators they alone appoint to several leadership positions.
25-37: Initiative Petition for an Act to Reform and Regulate Legislative Stipends: Would drastically reduce the number of “leadership stipends” controlled by legislative leadership while creating new, automatic stipends that accrue to any legislator serving on a working committee.
Ballot measures about election security:
25-04 Initiative Petition for a Law to Require Voter Identification in Massachusetts – Version A – Creates a voter identification requirement for elections in Massachusetts.
25-05 Initiative Petition for a Law to Require Voter Identification in Massachusetts – Version B: Same as the above, with some variations.
Ballot measures about public access to information about the government and elections:
25-07 Initiative Petition for a Law to Classify the Content of the Massachusetts Central Registry of Voters as Public Records: Makes the state’s central registry of voters a public record that all residents can request from the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
25-14 Initiative Petition for a Law to Improve Access to Public Records: Subjects the Massachusetts Legislature and Governor to the state’s Public Records Law, which currently applies to most other government bodies, including all local governments.
Ballot measures about the interactions of different levels of government (local, state, federal):
25-03 - Initiative Petition for a Law to Allow Single-Family Homes on Small Lots in Areas with Adequate Infrastructure: Creates a statewide right to build single-family homes on lots of a certain size, notwithstanding local zoning decisions.
25-19 Initiative Petition for a Constitutional Amendment Extending the People’s Right of Self-Government: Amends the state Constitution to allow Massachusetts voters, in a future ballot initiative, to “delegate their powers concerning international affairs to a democratically-elected legislative body of a federal union of nations.”
25-28 Initiative Petition for a Law to Cap Residential and Commercial Property Tax Increases: Caps statewide the amount of property tax increases that localities can levy on residential and commercial properties.
25-32 Initiative Petition for an Act to Repeal MBTA Zoning: Rescinds the state’s Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Communities Law, which overrides certain local zoning regulations.
25-33 Initiative Petition for an Act Preserving Local Control of Zoning: Precludes the state from overruling zoning decisions made at the municipal level or overruling local zoning decisions.
25-34 Initiative Petition for an Act to Prevent Overdevelopment: Precludes the state from requiring any city or town to create zoning districts allowing at least six units per acre by right; concurrently, it would forbid municipalities from creating zoning districts that allow by right more than 10 units per acre.
25-35 Initiative Petition for an Act Reforming the Zoning Process: Among other changes, would require a 2/3 vote of a town council, city council, or town meeting to change any zoning ordinances, by-laws, or amendments.
Follow GriffNotes to learn more!
 | A guest post by
|