Ella Adams
State House News Service

Thomas Kiley's daughter-in-law would have never signed a petition to repeal adult-use recreational marijuana, the attorney told the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission on Monday.

But as he went through signatures in support of the question, he saw her name there on the list. 

"I was 100 percent certain when I looked at that name, that my daughter-in-law did not knowingly sign that petition," Kiley said. "And I confirmed that afterwards by phone. And that is why in the objection, outside the basis of my gathering includes examination of contact with individuals."

Secretary of State William Galvin’s office in December certified 78,301 signatures for an initiative petition that would repeal adult-use marijuana in Massachusetts. Kiley filed a challenge to the question on January 2, centered on concerns about how signatures in support of the proposed ballot initiative were collected. 

"She told me, 'I would never sign such a petition,' " Kiley said at a pre-hearing conference about the objection before the state's panel of ballot law officials. "I asked the circumstances, and was told that she signed the petition having been told by the signature gatherer that it was one for affordable housing in her community."

A lawyer representing a supporter of the anti-marijuana petition, Patrick Strawbridge, argued that there hasn't been sufficient evidence presented to dispose of enough signatures to knock the petition out of the running for the November 2026 ballot.

"The fundamental problem we have is that we have, at least so far, been presented with in the objection very scant evidence to suggest that a hearing in this matter is going to allow this commission to make a decision with respect to anywhere close to the number of signatures that it would have to find were invalid to actually go for the relief that's requested," Strawbridge said Monday, January 12.

The objector would have to disqualify 3,727 signatures for the question to not move forward, a feat Galvin said last week "has to be based on evidence," not "assertions."

Strawbridge is a partner at firm Consovoy McCarthy, representing respondent Caroline Alcock Cunningham. Cunningham has been a consultant for the campaign to get the petition before voters, and is also a member of the Massachusetts Republican Party State Committee. 

"The information about Mr. Kiley's daughter-in-law is new to us. That was not in the objection and we're not challenging the account that was given. Unfortunately, it's hearsay at this moment," Strawbridge added. "If she were to testify in a hearing, if we have a hearing, I'd be happy to cross-examine her on that."

On behalf of Cunningham, Strawbridge served the commission and Kiley with a motion for a summary decision on Monday morning. The motion denies all allegations made by Kiley's objection, which claims that paid signature gatherers at various supermarkets and parking lots across Massachusetts misled voters about what they were signing and therefore fraudulently obtained signatures. 

"Although the Objection broadly asserts that numerous signers were misled in a variety of ways about the Petition, it provides specific allegations as to only three instances, implicating at most four signatures, where individuals were allegedly misled," the motion reads.

"It is not enough for the Objector to simply identify thousands of petitions with a general claim, and leave it to the necessarily expedited hearing to figure out exactly what the basis is," according to the motion. "Given the importance of the initiative process and the statutorily limited time for review, Objector's 'ready, fire, aim' approach is not tenable."

The motion on behalf of the anti-marijuana petition supporter denies that petition circulators made misleading statements and that signature gatherers provided any voters with only the backside of the petition. Exhibits within the motion include an affidavit from Cunningham, which states that "at no point were circulators instructed to behave in misleading or deceptive ways, and I have no knowledge of any effort to mislead any potential signer of Petition 1E."

Cunningham's affidavit included screenshots of information about three individuals who contended that they were misled by signature gatherers: Danielle Bello, John Nathan, and Brian Peck.

The motion ties Bello to Chris Faraone, editor-in-chief of cannabis-focused outlet Talking Joints Memo. The motion writes that Faraone "has been very active in opposing efforts to qualify" the petition. It also points to Nathan's role as chief executive officer of industrial hemp facility Bay State Extracts and his affiliation with other "pro-cannabis groups." 

Cunningham's affidavit includes Bello's Facebook posts connecting her to Faraone; screenshots about Bay State Extracts and Nathan; and a Whitepages account for Peck. It asserts that none of the people named in the affidavits took steps to notify or contact town officials about their concerns.

"I think the essential flaw in this filing and in this objection is that it's going to ask the commission to impute circumstances of alleged fraud or confusion to thousands and thousands of signatures. As I understand it, the burden of proof in this case is squarely on the objector to demonstrate that any individual signature is invalid," Strawbridge said. "We cited some case law from other jurisdictions that say the kind of imputation that would be necessary here is just simply not permissible, and that's for good reason."

The commission gave Kiley until the end of the business day on Tuesday, January 13 to file his response to the motion, which must contain an "offer of proof."

Kiley was involved with drafting the 2016 ballot initiative legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, he told State House News Service. He then represented the proponents when there was a challenge to the petition, which he helped win on their behalf. In 2016, 53.7 percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of legalization.

Ballot Law Commission chairman Ernest Sarason Jr. said that Strawbridge must provide any response to Kiley's by the close of business on Wednesday, January 14. 

The commission canceled its planned Tuesday hearing on the matter. If it denies the motion for summary decision, it plans to hold a hearing on the challenge at 10 a.m. Friday, January 16. The deadline for the commission to decide the matter is Friday, January 23, according to Galvin's office. 

The five-member commission includes former state senator and lobbyist Joseph Boncore, a Democrat; attorney Joseph Eisenstadt, a Democrat; Kaitlyn Sprague, a Republican; and Jed Nosal, who is unenrolled.