Democracy in action?

[kweerwolf]

Sen. Edward Augustus (D-Worcester) had a few questions for Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) and the most public spokesperson for VoteOnMarriage.org, a coalition of organizations working to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage, about allegations of fraud leveled at his organization's signature campaign.

<snip>

At the Oct. 18 committee hearing, MassEquality stepped up its efforts to prove that the signature campaign has been fraught with fraud and that paid signature gatherers have used bait-and-switch tactics to trick people into signing the marriage petition. Up until the hearing MassEquality had collected reports of people who claimed to have been deceived into signing the petition, and some of those people told their stories to the press. At the hearing MassEquality presented the committee with the first concrete evidence of signature fraud, a stack of 18 affidavits from residents across the state who say they have either been deceived by paid signature gatherers for the marriage petition or have witnessed petition gatherers deceiving others. The affidavits were sworn by citizens from locations as diverse as Worcester, Somerville, Everett, Cambridge, Leominster, Grafton, and Fitchburg, but their stories are remarkably similar; in nearly every case, petition gatherers lured people in with a petition to permit the sale of wine at grocery stores, and then asked them to sign another sheet of paper. Ten people putting forward affidavits said they were told the sheet was a back-up copy or some other form related to the wine petition. Others were told the second form was a petition for another cause, but the gatherers either lied about the subject of the petition or refused to discuss it. Nine of the people who signed affidavits testified before the committee about their experiences.

The affidavits represent a fraction of the 151 reports MassEquality has received from citizens across the state complaining of fraud.

Angela McElroy, a college student from Tallahassee, Fla., who worked for two weeks gathering signatures in late September and early October, bolstered their claims, saying that she was trained by her employer in the ins and outs of bait-and-switch tactics to get signatures for the marriage petition. McElroy said she quit after two weeks both because she disapproved of their tactics and because she was not making enough money, but Michael Arno, president of Arno Political Consultants, said that she was fired for disruptive behavior and theft. After returning home to Florida, McElroy contacted KnowThyNeighbor.org, an organization that is placing the names of petition signers online, and KnowThyNeighbor.org flew her back up to testify.

http://www.baywindows.com/media/paper328/news/2005/10/20/News/Democracy.In.Action-1027077.shtml

[damntexdem]

1. I'm glad they're active in Massechusetts.

Unfortunately, on a national level it has more often been a case of democracy inaction than of democracy in action.