Anne Manning Martin, a Republican hopeful for lieutenant governor, cannot appear on the Sept. 1 primary ballot under a new Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
On Tuesday, Justice Frank Gaziano denied Manning Martin’s appeal of an Essex County Superior Court ruling that sustained the State Ballot Law Commission’s decision to strike her name from September’s primary ballot.
Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Shawn Oliver and Democratic Party Executive Director Adam Roof filed similar complaints with the commission alleging Manning Martin had filed fraudulent nomination signatures and didn’t get the necessary 10,000 certified signatures to appear on the ballot. The complaints were considered as one and on June 26, the commission sustained their challenges to 1,279 of the 10,692 signatures Manning Martin submitted. Manning Martin then appealed the decision to Essex County Superior Court.
On July 10, Essex County Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Karp addressed Roof and Oliver’s motions separately. Karp overruled the commission’s decision on Roof’s complaint and upheld the commission ruling on Oliver’s objection. Karp ruled that the commission’s decision to bar Manning Martin’s name from appearing on September’s primary ballot was “affirmed.”
Karp said the decision to overturn the commission’s ruling on Roof’s complaint stemmed from his failure to comply with a requirement to send the objection via certified mail. Karp found that Oliver complied with the mailing requirements and said there was “substantial, if not overwhelming” evidence showing that the 1,279 signatures the commission invalidated were not signed by voters “as required by law.”
Manning Martin appealed Karp’s decision and contended that the commission’s decision should be overturned for several reasons including that it “violated her constitutional right to ballot access,” made legal errors, “ignored evidence,” did not have jurisdiction over the issue and “misinterpreted the facts and the law.”
Manning Martin argued the commission didn’t have the jurisdiction to rule on Oliver’s objection because it was not mailed in time and he did not provide her with enough information on the signatures being challenged.
In an eight-page decision, Gaziano disagreed.
Gaziano noted there was “substantial evidence” in the record showing Oliver had sent the objection in time. Also, he said “it is undisputed” that Oliver provided Manning Martin with a list containing the page number and line of each signature in question.
Also, like Karp, Gaziano concluded that there is “substantial, if not overwhelming, evidence” that the signatures the commission invalidated were not signed by the voters.
“In short, there was substantial evidence to support the SBLC’s decision to strike 1,279 signatures within Manning-Martin’s nomination papers, and the petitioner has not demonstrated that she is entitled to relief,” Gaziano said in the decision.
As part of her appeal, Manning Martin filed a motion asking the Supreme Judicial Court to order Secretary of State William Galvin’s office to get a waiver from the federal deadline to issue ballots so the candidate can “exhaust her appeal” to get her name on the ballot. Court records show Galvin’s office must have a final list of candidates by Tuesday in order to meet the July 18 federal deadline to issue primary ballots. Gaziano also denied that motion.
Manning Martin did not immediately respond to the News Service’s request for comment on the ruling.
The ruling tees up Oliver to be the sole GOP candidate for lieutenant governor. Since entering the race, Oliver has hitched his campaign to gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve, who is competing against Mike Minogue in the Sept. 1 primary.
