Right to Repair Secures Spot on November Ballot in Massachusetts

The coalition behind a ballot initiative that some independent car mechanics say is critical to protecting their ability to repair more technologically sophisticated vehicles said Tuesday it had collected enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Ballot campaigns have until the close of business on Wednesday to turn in an additional 13,374 signatures to secure a spot on the 2020 ballot. The Right to Repair Coalition said Tuesday that it had collected more than 26,000 new signatures to clear this last hurdle.

Signature gathering for campaigns of all types, including candidates for public office, has become more complicated during the pandemic, and the courts have allowed the expanded use of electronic signatures.

The campaign has said passage of its ballot question is vital to protecting the rights of independent repair shops to access the data they need to fix vehicles of all makes and models. Voters in 2012 approved a “right-to-repair” law that the coalition now hopes to expand to cover telematics systems that can wirelessly transit a vehicle’s mechanical data to manufacturers.

This story originally appeared on massrighttorepair.org.