Timeline

Sept 21, 2005 :: Signature collection begins. - Petition sponsors begin collecting signatures for the anti-gay marriage amendment. Arno Political Consultants, a California company that has been widely accused of petition fraud, was hired by petition sponsors to collect signatures outside grocery, department, and home improvement stores. Arno's workers were shipped in from out of state and were paid $1.50 per signature. Accusations of fraud, bait-and-switch, and forgery were widespread.

The signature drive was also coordinated through the churches and a series of "Marriage Protection Sundays" were held.

Oct 2 :: Marriage Protection Sunday. - Petition sponsors launch a major signature gathering effort in the churches. Church leaders were asked to preach on the evils of gay marriage, provided with sample sermons, and encouraged to pass the petition in the pews. The state's four Catholic bishops sent letters to the pastors in their diocese asking them to support the initiative. Those that dissented were disciplined.

Oct 3 :: Civil investigator appointed. - Attorney General Tom Reilly appoints a civil investigator after numerous counts of petition fraud are reported.

Oct 4 :: Hundreds of signatures thrown out. - Christopher Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association, announces he will be throwing out hundreds of signatures gathered for the wine-in-stores petition his organization is sponsoring because paid petition circulators were using his petition to fraud people into signing the anti-gay marriage petition. He stated, "We don't condone these bait-and-switch tactics... What happened was illegal."

Oct 13 :: Petition worker trained to steal signatures. - Former paid petition worker Angela McElroy reports to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that she was trained by her employers to perform bait-and-switch and that she personally frauded hundreds of citizens. McElroy also states that she witnessed another worker forging names directly from the wine-in-stores petition to the anti-gay marriage petition.

Oct 18 :: State House hearing on petition fraud. - A hearing on petition fraud is held at the State House before the Joint Committee on Election Laws. A panel of citizens testifies that they were the victims of fraud including an 18-year-old whose first act as a registered voter was to have her signature stolen.

Former paid petition worker Angela McElroy provides a demonstration of the bait-and-switch tactics taught to her by her employer and recounts how she watched a fellow worker forge names from one petition to another. She also states that paid signature gatherers would brag about how they were able to fraud gay people into signing a petition to take their own rights away.

Kris Mineau, spokesman for the petition sponsors, dismisses the fraud allegations as the work of "HO-MO-sexual" activists. Chip Faulkner of Citizens for Limited Taxation, testifying for petition sponsors, states that anyone falling for the fraud tactics of the petition circulators "has the IQ of an eggplant."

Nov 1 :: Leaked emails reveal MassGOP involvement. - It is revealed that the state Republican Party, despite its officially neutral stance on gay marriage, has struck a back room deal with the anti-gay marriage petition sponsors. The Republican Party will help collect signatures in exchange for help building its database for the 2006 elections.

Nov 6 :: FOX25 News Undercover exposes petition fraud. - Former paid petition worker Angela McElroy reveals the bait-and-switch tactics she was taught by her employers and demonstrates just how easy it is to steal signatures (she averages one bait-and-switch every two minutes in the video). She states petition workers can make as much as $1,200 on a good day!

Nov 23 :: Signatures submitted to town clerks for verification. - Petition sponsors claim to have gathered over 170,000 signatures but town clerks are only able to verify 147,000.

Dec 7 :: Signatures submitted to secretary of state for certification. - The secretary of the state officially certifies 123,356 signatures. Of the 170,000 claimed by petition sponsors, almost 50,000 signatures are thrown out.

Dec 21 :: KnowThyNeighbor.org posts names of petition signers online.

Jan 6, 2006 :: GLAD lawsuit. - GLAD files a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment. The state constitution does not allow a citizen-initiated petition that seeks “reversal of a judicial decision” and GLAD will argue that the petition squarely seeks to reverse the Supreme Judicial Court’s Goodridge decision.

Feb 28 :: Criminal investigation launched by Attorney General. - Prosecutors from Attorney General Tom Reilly's office begin a criminal investigation into allegations of signature forgery.

May 4 :: GLAD lawsuit heard by Supreme Judicial Court. Ruling expected sometime in June or July.

May 10 :: Constitutional Convention (ConCon) delayed. - Having passed the signature requirement, the amendment now goes before a joint session of the legislature where it must win the support of at least 25% (50) of the 200 legislators (40 senators and 160 representatives). But legislators choose to delay the ConCon until after a ruling on the GLAD lawsuit is issued. ConCon is rescheduled for July 12.

2007 :: Consitutional Convention. - If the amendment is still alive it will must pass another joint session of the legislature (same rules as before) before it goes to the voters in 2008.

Nov 4, 2008 :: Vote of the electorate. - For an initiative petition for a constitutional amendment to be passed by the electorate, at least 30% of the voters who cast ballots in the election must vote in the affirmative on the question, and a majority of the ballots cast on that question must also be affirmative.

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