Election Day Tuesday

Election Day is tomorrow, Nov. 3rd, from 7am to 8pm. Find your polling place. Early voting is over, but you can still drop off your mail-in ballot. You should drop it off at your town/city hall or in the blue ballot boxes placed around your municipality. Mailing your ballots does not guarantee it will arrive in time, so drop it off with your city or town.

We got some feedback about not providing a quick summary of our thoughts on the ballot questions. We didn’t suggest any explicit endorsements since we did not get a poll out to members in time. Here are some ballot question recommendations based on our party’s positions and the reviewers opinions.

Question 1: Public Records Requirements for Legislature and Governor’s Office Initiative

Vote YES

We believe that all public records should be available unless there is a compelling personal privacy reason for not doing so and this ballot initiative would move us closer to that goal.

Our review of Question 1.

Question 2: Permit Collective Bargaining for Committee for Public Counsel Services Employees Initiative

Vote YES

The reviewers believe that workers should be able to bargain collectively.

Our review of Question 2.

Question 3: Top-Two Primary Elections Initiative

We split 1 YES and 3 NO

A Yes vote would create all party primaries and select the top two candidates from the primary to go on to the general election which could introduce more competition in legislative elections where only one party runs a candidate (over 50% of all races), but where the primary had more than one candidate. Primaries generally occur in September, when voter interest is low. It is not Instant Runoff/Ranked Choice Voting (which we support) since candidates are not ranked such that votes for an eliminated candidate are allocated to their next choice.

Our review of Question 3.

Question 4: Permit Same-Day Voter Registration Initiative

Vote YES

The Pirate Party advocates for same-day registration.

Our review of Question 4.

Question 5: Change State Tax Revenue Limit Initiative

Vote NO

The reviewers believe that this initiative would harm needed services in order to reduce the taxes that the rich pay.

Our review of Question 5.

Question 6: Establish the Nature for All Fund Initiative

Vote how you want – The reviewers were neutral.

Our review of Question 6.

Question 7: Limit on Required Lot Size for Single-Family Homes Initiative

Vote YES

The reviewers believe that this initiative would increase the amount of housing units in Massachusetts.

Our review of Question 7.

Question 8: Eliminate Recreational Marijuana Sales and Allow Limited Possession Initiative

Vote NO

The Pirate Party supported the legalization of Cannabis and opposes its prohibition.

Our review of Question 8.

Question 9: Firearm Regulations Referendum

Vote YES

The reviewers oppose rolling back all of these firearms regulations, though we may support particular rollbacks.

Our review of Question 9.