State Elections Division Certifies New Batch of Ballot Questions

The Elections Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office has announced that an additional four potential ballot questions have completed processing and have been determined to contain enough certified signatures to advance toward the 2026 State Election ballot. These four petitions join five others certified by the Division earlier this month.

According to the Elections Division, the following additional ballot questions contain more than the 74,574 certified signatures required to proceed to the next step in the process of qualifying for the ballot:

• "Initiative Petition for a Law to Improve Access to Public Records" – 89,013
• "Initiative Petition for an Act to Reform and Regulate Legislative Stipends" – 96,797
• "Initiative Petition for a Law Relative to Labor Relations Policies for Committee for Public Counsel Services Employees" – 86,153
• "Initiative Petition for a Law Relative to Limiting State Tax Collection Growth and Returning Surpluses to Taxpayers" – 85,588

With this certification, the total number of potential questions certified this month has reached nine, with an additional two petitions of significant size still to be processed by the January 7, 2026 deadline for the Secretary to transmit qualifying petitions to the Massachusetts Legislature.

After qualifying petitions are transmitted on January 7, 2026, the Legislature will have until May 5, 2026 to consider and act on the proposals. If the Legislature chooses not to pass a proposed law, the petitioners will be permitted to gather the additional 12,429 signatures needed to place the question on the ballot in November.