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HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1978 FILED ON: 1/15/2025
HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 858
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_________________
PRESENTED BY:
James M. Murphy
_________________
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
An Act providing disclosure of political phone calls.
_______________
PETITION OF:
NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :DATE ADDED:James M. Murphy4th Norfolk1/15/2025 1 of 3
HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1978 FILED ON: 1/15/2025
HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 858
By Representative Murphy of Weymouth, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 858) of
James M. Murphy relative to providing disclosure of political phone calls and further regulating
push polling, so-called. Election Laws.
[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 709 OF 2023-2024.]
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_______________
In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
(2025-2026)
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An Act providing disclosure of political phone calls.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1: Section 1 of Chapter 55 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014
2official edition is hereby amended by inserting after the definition of “Ballot Question
3Committee” the following definition:
4 "Bona fide survey and opinion research'', The collection and analysis of data regarding
5opinions, needs, awareness, knowledge, views, experiences, and behaviors of a population,
6through the development and administration of surveys, interviews, focus groups, polls,
7observation, or other research methodologies, in which no sales, promotional, or marketing
8efforts are involved, and through which there is no attempt to influence a participant's attitudes
9or behavior. Bona fide survey and opinion research includes message testing, which is the study 2 of 3
10for research purposes of how randomly-selected individuals react to positive or negative
11information on a candidate, elected public official, or ballot question.
12 SECTION 2: Section 1 of chapter 55 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014
13official edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the definition of “political party committee”
14the following definition:
15 "Push-polling'', (i) Calling voters on behalf of, in support of, or in opposition to, any
16candidate for public office by telephone; and (ii) Asking questions related to opposing candidates
17for public office which state, imply, or convey information about the candidates character, status,
18or political stance or record; and (iii) Conducting such calling in a manner which is likely to be
19construed by the voter to be a survey or poll to gather statistical data for entities or organizations
20which are acting independent of any particular political party, candidate, or interest group as part
21of a series of like telephone calls that consist of more than 2,000 connected calls that last less
22than 2 minutes in elections for United States President, United States Senate, United States
23Congress, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Lieutenant Governor of the
24Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Secretary
25of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Auditor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or
26conducting such calling as part of a series of like telephone calls that consist of more than 500
27connected calls that last less than 2 minutes in elections for Governor’s council, state senate,
28state representative, mayor, city councilor or alderman, town councilor or selectman, school
29district, or village district; and (iv) Conducting such calling for purposes other than bona fide
30survey and opinion research. 3 of 3
31 SECTION 3: Chapter 55 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 official edition, is
32hereby amended by inserting after Section 18G the following section:
33 Section 18H(a) Any person, association, corporation, labor union or other entity who
34engages in push-polling, as defined in Section 1 of Chapter 55 of the General Laws, shall, prior
35to asking any person contacted a question relating to a candidate:
36 (i) Inform the person that the telephone call is a "paid political advertisement;'' and
37 (ii) Identify the organization making the call and the organization paying for the call; and
38 (iii) Provide a valid, current, publicly-listed telephone number for the organization
39making the call; and
40 (iv) Identify that the telephone call is being made on behalf of, in support of, or in
41opposition to a particular candidate or candidates for public office and identify that candidate or
42candidates by name.
43 (b) All disclosures required by this section shall be made in a clear and intelligible
44manner and must be repeated upon request of the call respondent.
45 (c) A caller may not state or imply false or fictitious names or telephone numbers when
46providing the disclosures required by this section.
47 (d) A violation of this section shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000.