SECTION 1. Chapter 53 of the General Laws, is hereby amended by striking out, in Section 22A, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, the third sentence and inserting in place thereof the following paragraphs:-

Petition circulators shall not be paid anything of value per signature gathered, although this shall not prohibit payment of salary and expenses that are not related to the number of signatures obtained. Each initiative and referendum petition shall prominently state whether the petition circulator is paid to circulate petitions and paid petition circulators shall wear a badge informing the public that the petition is being circulated by a paid circulator.

Registrars shall provide a receipt in writing for each initiative or referendum petition submitted to and received by them. In no case shall any signatures be denied merely because of messy extraneous marking upon the forms for initiative or referendum petitions, so long as the information necessary for confirming signatures remains legible.

Based on the decision of the original 10 signatories of each petition, printed on the petition shall be a notice as to whether Registrar’s shall deliver petitions directly to the Secretary of State or return such petitions only on receiving written receipts or other identification acceptable to the registrars.