Word: balloting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When yesterday's deadline passed at 5 p.m., 157 candidates had entered the race for 88 available seats. By Thursday September 26, the original deadline, 112 students had filed for a place on the ballot...
However, by taking the measure off the November ballot, the Cambridge City Council, by a vote of 5 to 4, has itself stifled free expression; the body has removed from public consideration what it finds objectionable. Their public reasoning was pre-emptive: since similar legislation passed in other cities has been declared unconstitutional, why not avoid the time and cost of litigation...
Under Massachusetts law, ordinary citizens can file a petition demanding that a certain measure which the government has not adopted be referred to the voters. When presented with a legally certified initiative petition, a city council must either enact the proposed ordinance or put it on the ballot. In this case, Cambridge lawmakers chose neither option...
What some city councilors fail to realize is that no matter how flawed an initiative petition may seem, direct ballot access for ordinary citizens must be preserved. Only the courts can decide whether a law is constitutional...
...such rights, but oftentimes a public confused by demagoguery does just that. Cambridge officials were right to withhold the anti-porn measure from a public referendum. They are still right even if, as the majority contends, the measure would have certainly failed, in court if not on the ballot. In fact it is their duty as elected officials to protect the public from voting away a liberty...