Judge signs off on city’s call to reject petition signatures
By Andrea Gregory

The November ballot looks like it will not ask residents to decide if Somerville should divest its financial holdings in Israeli bonds. The deadline passed this week without the city recognizing any of the signatures needed to bring the issue to voters.
The Somerville Divestment Project (SDP) began almost two years ago. Its mission – to take action that will have an effect on a far away conflict. The group saw pulling any financial investments tied to Israel as one way of accomplishing its goal. The hope was that local voters would feel the same way, forcing Somerville to yank its investments.
But getting the question on the ballot required 10 percent of the city to agree it was something worth voting on. Collecting almost 4,000 signatures from registered voter was a big task, but Ron Francis, head of SDP, thought his group of activist could pull it off.

However, the group wanted to do things its own way, using its own petition forms instead of the ones drawn up by city officials.
After the city refused to certify the first batch of signatures, SDP sought legal action. On Thursday, Justice Julian Houston, of the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, heard the case. Houston rendered an oral verdict upholding Somerville’s decision not to certify the signatures since SDP had failed to collect them on proper forms.
City officials had drafted what they considered to be unbiased wording of the question that could have possibly appeared on the ballot. Using the proper forms also would have ensured the group was not collecting signatures prior to 90 days before the election. The signatures SDP handed in last month did not have dates.
"From the city’s perspective, it was upholding the integrity of the process," said John Gannon, city solicitor. "The city has a process. The city was willing to work with SDP, and they decided to go their own way. It’s all about ensuring the integrity of the electoral process."
Gannon said out of the signatures that were originally handed over to the city, only about two-thirds were actually registered voters and Somerville residents. The others would not have counted, he said.
After the court ruling, SDP still had until 5 p.m. on Sept. 26 to hand in signatures on the proper forms, but nothing more was filed
SDP does have the option to appeal the judge’s decision, but Francis is not saying what if anything is the next plan of action.
“We can, but it’s not clear that we will,” he said.
Francis said making the issue and SDP’s mission public is still an accomplishment. He also claims SDP did collect more than enough signatures by the deadline even if they were never handed over.
“It’s a high hurdle to reach,” said Francis.