Massachusetts Radiation Limits for Technology and Wireless Facilities Initiative (2024)

Massachusetts Radiation Limits for Technology and Wireless Facilities Initiative
Election date November 5, 2024
Topic Business regulation
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

The Massachusetts Radiation Limits for Technology and Wireless Facilities Initiative (#23-39, #23-40) was not on the ballot in Massachusetts as an indirect initiated state statute on November 5, 2024.

The initiative would have established radiation limits for technology devices and wireless facilities.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the different versions of the measure are available below:

• Initiative #23-39
• Initiative #23-40

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Massachusetts

The state process

In Massachusetts, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirect initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 3.5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. No more than one-quarter of the verified signatures on any petition can come from a single county. The process for initiated state statutes in Massachusetts is indirect, which means the legislature has a chance to approve initiatives with successful petitions directly without the measure going to the voters. A first round of signatures equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor is required to put an initiative before the legislature. A second round of signatures equal to 0.5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election is required to put the measure on the ballot if the legislature rejects or declines to act on a proposed initiated statute. Signatures for initiated statutes in Massachusetts are collected in two circulation periods. The first period runs from the third Wednesday in September to two weeks prior to the first Wednesday in December, a period of nine weeks. If the proposed law is not adopted by the first Wednesday of May, petitioners then have until the first Wednesday of July (eight weeks) to request additional petition forms and submit the second round of signatures.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2024 ballot:

• Signatures required (first round): 74,574 signatures
• Signatures required (second round): 12,429 signatures
• Deadline (first round): The deadline to submit the first round of signatures to the secretary of state was December 6, 2023. Signatures needed to be submitted to local registrars by November 22, 2023.
• Deadline (second round): The deadline to submit the second round of signatures was July 3, 2024.

If enough signatures are submitted in the first round, the legislature must act on a successful petition by the first Wednesday of May. The measure only goes on the ballot if the legislature does not pass it and if the second round of signatures is successfully collected.

Details about this initiative

• The initiative was filed in August 2023 by Kirstin Beatty.
• On September 6, 2023, the attorney general announced it did not meet the qualifications to be cleared for circulation.
• On September 6, 2023, Kirstin Beatty appealed the attorney general's decision to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
• On September 12, 2023, the Supreme Court ordered the attorney general to write a summary for the initiative and authorized the proponents to circulate the petition.
• On December 7, 2023, WBUR reported that it had not submitted a sufficient number of signatures by the deadline.

See also

2024 measures

• 2024 ballot measures
• Business regulation on the ballot
• 2024 petition deadlines

Massachusetts

• Massachusetts ballot measures
• Massachusetts initiative laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls
• Ballot measure signature costs

External links

• Initiative #23-39
• Initiative #23-40