Ballot Initiative

Our staff ready for the polls on election day 2004

In an unprecedented landslide, approximately 85% voted for joint physical custody of children on Fathers & Families’ non-binding ballot question. The lopsided margin of victory was greater than that of any elected official in Massachusetts, including John Kerry, Barney Frank, or Jim McGovern. The question passed in all 37 legislative districts, representing about 1/4 of the state's electorate. In most the margin of victory was greater than 80% and averaged about 85%. In more than half the districts, our ballot question received more positive votes than the winning legislative candidate. Our margin of victory was far greater than almost any other ballot question (legalization of marijuana, Patriot Act, Fair Elections, etc.). More than 600,000 Massachusetts citizens voted on our non-binding ballot question, representing every area of the state, every ethnic group and every social class. In 19 of the 29 districts in which there also was an election for the legislative seat, we received more votes than the winning candidate. In many of the towns in which our petition was on the ballot, various women's groups and domestic violence groups opposed these petitions, but without seeming impact on the outcome. The fact that our question was on the ballot in more than double the number of districts of any recent ballot petition adds to the significance of the actual vote.

We now have the researchers and the voters in agreement that children need both parents. This is our opportunity to push our shared parenting legislation to victory in Massachusetts.

For the latest voting results for our ballot petition, go to the Boston Globe's Ballot Election Results

You can also click on the following link to open an Excel spreadsheet that provides summary data on the election results: F&F Ballot Petition Voting Results Analysis

Here is a list of all towns in which our petition was on the ballot, along with the correct question number.

Ballot petition flyer for Shared Physical Custody (MS Word Format)

For the election, we produced an easy-to-print flyer. It contains the major arguments for shared parenting, and may be useful to other individuals and groups in their efforts to achieve joint physical custody.

Cities and towns with our ballot sorted by town (MS Excel Format)
This table conains an alphabetical list of names of each town or city, and includes the district involved, along with precincts and wards.

Cities and towns with our ballot by district (MS Excel Format)
This table conains an alphabetical list of names of each district and includes the name of the city or town involved, along with precincts and wards.

In the early summer of 2004 Fathers & Families completed a large-scale effort to get a shared-parenting public policy question on the November ballot for various Senate and Representative districts in the Commonwealth. For Representative Districts we needed 200 certified signatures. For Senate Districts we needed 1,200 certified signatures.

We exceeded our goals on almost every front, with approval by the Secretary of State and the Attorney General's office in 36 Representative Districts and one Senatorial District. This is more than double the number of districts achieved in any other ballot petition campaign in the last three elections. This effort involved more than 100 volunteers working hard over a three month period.

The wording of the question in 31 of the Representative Districts and the Senatorial district was as follows:

"Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation requiring that in all separation and divorce proceedings involving minor children, the court shall uphold the fundamental rights of both parents to the shared physical and legal custody of their children and the children’s right to maximize their time with each parent, so far as is practical, unless one parent is found unfit or the parents agree otherwise, subject to the requirements of existing child support and abuse prevention laws?"

In five western districts the wording was:

"Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote for legislation to create a strong presumption in child custody cases in favor of joint physical and legal custody, so that the court will order that the children have equal access to both parents as much as possible, except where there is clear and convincing evidence that one parent is unfit, or that joint custody is not possible through no fault of one of the parents?"

A similar question was on the ballot in four towns comprising one Representative district in the 2002 election and over 60% of the voters supported it, despite a negative editorial in one of the local newspapers. Other polls on shared parenting have been positively received as well, so our hope is that residents of Massachusetts will vote an emphatic "yes" on this question in November.

For those who helped with the signature gathering process, we've provided a set of files that they can access by clicking below and providing their log-in name and password.