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MA voters approved a legislative audit. What’s blocking it?
March 19 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm EDT
In 2024, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question that affirmed that the State Auditor has the right to audit the legislature. The ballot question won every town and city in Massachusetts, passing with 72% of the vote statewide. Since becoming Massachusetts state law, the question has instead become a conflict between political insiders. Legislative leaders continue to claim that the ballot question is unconstitutional. The State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has sought to bring the question to court to allow her office to proceed with the audit. The state’s Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who must represent constitutional officers, has neglected to take a position on the audit, leaving the question in legal limbo.
Meanwhile, members of the public are left wondering: what happened to the audit we voted for?
Join Act on Mass on March 19th for a webinar to investigate this question. Where do the various sides stand on the audit? What is the legal precedent here? We will be joined by former appellate lawyer and federal and state prosecuter Jeanne Kempthorne.
Jeanne Kempthorne is a retired attorney and mediator. In her 40-year legal career, she practiced as a civil litigator at the firm Hill & Barlow before joining the US Attorney’s Office as a federal prosecutor where she served in several roles, including chief of the public corruption unit. After her federal service, she practiced in the areas of criminal defense and habeas corpus, and served as a State Ethics commissioner, chief of appeals and general counsel for the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office, and a special assistant district attorney in the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office’s conviction integrity unit. A longtime good-government activist, Kempthorne co-authored The Massachusetts Legislature: Democracy in Decline (2021) and the 2025 update Democracy in Decline: Denial and Delay. In 2025, she was invited to testify before the State Senate subcommittee on the constitutionality of the law clarifying that the State Auditor has the power to audit the legislature.
