• What the heck is a “master checker”?
• Why are election workers checking every single signature submitted for Referendum 71, the “everything-but marriage” law, rather than the more usual random sample?
• Why are advocates on both sides watching the truly arcane figures on how many duplicate R-71 signatures are being found?
• The current rejection rate is running between 10 and 11 percent. What’s the dividing line that separates success or failure for R-71 sponsors – and what have the signature checks over the past 20 years been like?

These and other questions are taken up and answered by state Elections Director Nick Handy, an attorney and a part-time graduate school prof who fills you in on the referendum checking process in general and R-71 in specific.