The Mayor and other city officials should be ashamed of themselves. When 4,500 signatures are collected to put a question on the ballot and they refuse to even consider the signatures by blocking the question using slippery legal technicalities. What blatant disregard for citizens concerns and democratic process. The large number of signatures collected is the clearest message that the citizens of Somerville want the right to vote on divestment from Israel bonds and military companies in November, and those we elect to serve in city hall are supposed to uphold our rights to democratic process, not attack them.

Before the Somerville Divestment Project began collecting signatures in the spring, we read all the state and city laws on ballot question initiatives. We spoke to the State Elections Department who told us that under Chapter 53- Section 18A- we could begin collecting petition signatures at any time, and that the form we use need only be "substantially similar" to the state form. We also spoke to people in the city elections office who told us we could use any form we like as long as the names and addresses were legible and the form was signed, they even said "you can write them on notebook paper if you need to, the form doesn't matter."

So you can imagine our surprise when on August 9th we received the City Solicitor's opinion which said we'd have to use some special form the city came up with and that we could only begin collecting signatures 90 days before the election.Their form changed all the language on the petition we'd submitted to the Board of Alderman. Which, even according to the judge who ruled against us, makes the form invalid and is against election law (Why, then, did he rule against us? He gave no precedent, and his only reasoning was illogical; he said they told to use their form and we should have used their form, after admitting the form was fatally flawed. Where is the justice?). Our lawyers thought this changing the form to one without our original language may be just another way to trap us into a different technicality - if we use a form that does not have the language submitted to the Board of Alderman that's not valid either.

Our lawyers encouraged us to go on collecting signatures with our original form and referred to the wording of the laws and how they don't say anything about either the city having the right to come up with their own form, nor their 90-day before the election proclamation. The city had plenty of time and many opportunities to tell us of its "opinions". We'd filed as a Ballot Question Committee months before and we filed the petition with the Board of Alderman as we were supposed to (at least 90 days before the election). The Mayor is clearly trying to harass us and stop us at all costs. He's already made up some special rules to exclude us from Artbeat. First we were the only Somerville group excluded, then when he was advised that he was violating our civil rights, he barred another group too, so it wouldn"t look as bad. I, for one, am tired of Mayor Curtatone acting like he's God.

In court, the city even tried arguing that our petition language was "inflammatory" (how inflammatory can it be if more than 10% of Somerville voters signed a petition to put it on the ballot!). How can they even stand there and make these arguments, what ever happened to Freedom of Speech? That they want to censor all the facts out of the petition should be of concern to all. Whether you think the Somerville Divestment Project is the most moral, just citizens movement in this country or a bunch of crazies, you should still be outraged at the idea of a petition that refers to international law, the UN, and the Geneva Conventions being censored from the ballot solely because this issue deals with withdrawing our financial support for the state of Israel. The law clearly states that the city must put the question on the ballot if we bring them 10% of registered voters' signatures (3,966). We did the work to have this question put on the ballot; we were out there every night this summer collecting signatures. That the city would try to stop us is a flagrant violation of its role and our rights.

The ability of citizens to put a question on the ballot is a right preserved in our constitution. It is a safeguard to preserve our right to be represented when those in power refuse to represent us for their own political reasons. This is at the heart of democracy. The city cannot make up the rules as it goes. If we'd had a set of well-funded hot-shot lawyers we could have forced the city to uphold the law. Please, all who read this, go read the laws and speak out. It is a real shame when those put in power to uphold democracy abandon it for their own aims.

Christina Bolton
SDP Neighborhood Coordinator
Spring Hill