Massachusetts voters opted to keep recreational cannabis legal and retain gun control laws in two of the nine questions on their ballot this year.
In another ballot question decision, voters passed a measure that will allow for same day voter registration, joining 20 other states, and passed a question that will override local zoning ordinances to allow homes to be built on lots as small as 5,000 square feet.
Massachusetts voters rejected a question that would have replaced party primaries with a new system that would send the top two vote getters in a general primary onto the state election in November. But in another voting question, residents passed a measure that will allow for same-day registration in the commonwealth, joining 20 other states including Connecticut and Vermont as well as the District of Columbia.
In other ballot questions, voters approved making most records held by the State Legislature and the governor's office public records under the commonwealth's Public Records Law. The move comes amid a years-long battle between Democratic State Auditor Diana DiZoglio and the State Legislature over her bid to open Beacon Hill's books. Lawmakers are currently considering a similar law that, if passed, would replace the ballot question's passage.
Voters also passed a measure that will allow employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services — the commonwealth's public defenders — to collectively bargain like most state workers already do.
