"We got skunked by the Election Commission," he says.
Chaos and Confusion
The Cambridge political system dictates that for a question to get on the ballot, it must be endorsed by 8 percent of the voting population. Supporters of the rent control ballot were confused as to whether all of those votes had to come from active voters.
According to Hatch Sterret of Cambridge United for Rent Equity (CURE), the problem was that thousands of 'inactive' voters who no longer live in Cambridge were counted by the Election Commission as part of the general voting base.
Consequently, CURE had to get signatures from 8 percent of a 58,000-person voting base, versus the 43,000 they thought they had to work from.
"Inactive voters include thousands of people who our committee proved no longer live in Cambridge," Sterret said.
According to City Councillor Sheila T. Russell, though, many of the CURE petition signatures were illegible or otherwise invalid.
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