Action Alert Massachusetts: Petition to Amend the State Constitution to Ban Same-Sex Marriage

[liz_marcs]

If you are residents of the People's Republic of Massachusetts, you know that there is an odious little petition going around that would place a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in the state.

One tiny problem, the "record-breaking" petition may be rife with fraud.

One common tactic, which almost snared my parents, is these little creeps would stand around in front of supermarkets and claim people were signing a petition to allow supermarkets to sell alcohol. Once they signed the "alcohol petition," people were then asked to sign an "affidavit" stating that they were over 18 and were eligible to sign the petition. Problem was the "affidavit" was actually the anti-same-sex-marriage petition. People took the creep-o signature collectors at their word and signed without insisting on seeing the text hidden by a piece of paper.

And yes, did hit the news here after someone insisted on seeing the text on the "affidavit" and blew a gasket when she saw what it actually said.

At any rate, to make sure that all the names are legit, Know Thy Neighbor has created a database online that will allow you to check the names and addresses of who signed the anti-same-sex-marriage petition. If you find your name there and you didn't sign, there's a handy link to a PDF of a fraud affidavit that will be forwarded to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office.

Note: While I can't speak for other states, I can say that yes, it is legal to do this in Massachusetts. Petitions are public documents, and your name and personal information likewise become public information when you sign them. That's why you do not sign a petition if you don't want your name publicly associated with the cause it supports.

Due today's Boston Globe article, please note that the database search on Know Thy Neighbor is more than a little hampered. Searching by name and street address has been disabled and the results are a little slow in coming.

To give you an idea, I've been noodling with the database for 20 minutes an hour looking for my name (you can search by city right now), so be prepared for a little bit of a wait while you're paging through results.

ETA: AAAaaaaaand the database has crashed. I'll check later to see if it's back up. Finally back up, but still can't search by name or street address. I am, however, checking for my name via city, but the database is still achingly slow.

ETA2: While you're waiting, here's a little something from The Daily Show about the tragic effects Same-Sex Marriage has on drooling knuckle-draggers.

ETA 3 My name isn't showing up in my city, so that's good news. Hopefully when the ability to search by name is up, I'll be able to make sure my name doesn't crop up under an old address.

Comments

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm searching now but that website is the slowest of the slow. Thanks for the heads up, though. :-)

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

The article just ran in the Globe today, so it's probably getting hammered seven ways to Sunday.

Plus, I don't like we can only search by city right now. It would be pretty easy for someone to sign my under an old address if they were "signature mining" like some the hijinks that happened in Las Vegas during the Presidential election.

I figure things'll probably calm down after Christmas, so I'll be searching under my name then.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

That's about as slimy as it gets. Can't people be prosecuted for having people sign a petition under false pretenses or something? Probably not, more's the pity.

[mochi-tsuki.livejournal.com]

You might be able to charge the people collecting the names - if you document that they lied about the content of the petition. The problem is they are usually unconnected to the people sponsoring the petition. This exact tactic was used in some of the referenda last year - the people collecting the names were just doing it for the money, $5 or $10 per signature. Reporters went to the headquarters and the organizers just denied they'd told the collectors to do anything misleading. Now, if someone wanted to do a sting and get them on tape ... but its probably too late for that now.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Which is exactly the problem. There was a little bit of a scandle in Las Vegas when there was a drive to put Nader on the presidential ballot in that state. An awful lot of casino workers came forward when they found out that their names were on the Nader petition when they never signed. The whole thing ws traced back to one of those fly-by-night firms that was collecting signatures for money. The people who were behind it (I think it was actually a Republican GOTV group) had complete deniability and no one could prove anything, although an awful lot of fingers pointed in that direction.

They did get stung on the liquor store thing, but that's only because one of the voters insisted on reading her "affidavit" before signing (which you'd think would be something everyone would do as a matter-of-course) and blew the whistle.

Still, it's hard to say how many names were fraudulent. Plus, the petition has been certified, so it is too late. All this is for is for people who didn't sign it to make sure their name's not on it.

[aceliwen.livejournal.com]

You know your country's going down the toilet when they steal what amounts to a trick from the Man Show as a reasonable method.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Hilarious, but sadly true.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. My laugh for the day.

Maybe we should just tell these loons that obviously legalization of gay marriage directly led to the Sox winning the pennant. It's as resonable as anything else.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. It's all cause and effect, you see...

[anelith.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the only way you could expect to find your name on that database is if you actually signed something recently -- either deliberately signed the actual petition, or signed something else *thinking* it was the "affidavit". So are you searching it because you signed something and think that it might have been the fraudulent petition?

Or do you think the fraud might be even worse than suspected, and that they might have gone far enough to actually put your name there without you putting your name down anywhere?

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

The last petition I signed was for an item that was on the town ballot, so I'm not worried about getting caught in the "affidavit" scam. I'm more worried that my name might've been put on the petition without my knowledge or consent.

I didn't see my name crop up in my hometown, so I know I'm good there. I just want to make sure it doesn't crop up attached to an old address.

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I've been waiting for the database to be not quite so stressed so I can go on and browse by city. There are 58 pages for my town, and I have to admit I'm curious. I know I'm going to recognize some names. I have my suspicions of who would have signed it. It's terribly nosy of me, but I think I'm going to do it later.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Heh. There is that, too.