UPDATE: United Independent Party Chairman Even Falchuk has filed papers with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to form an Olympic Ballot Question Committee. He released the following statement:

Boston 2024 officials seemed to be glossing over the more difficult issues hosting the Olympics most definitely will entail. Raising critical questions about the billions the Games would cost, as well as security and traffic concerns, doesn’t make anyone a ‘naysayer.’ It makes us taxpaying, thinking adults who see the value of putting things like our seniors, veterans and kids in school above something like hosting the Olympics.

Mayor Marty Walsh has been doing a lot of explaining lately when it comes to Boston’s potential bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. On multiple occasions he’s appeared to have differing stances on putting the prospect of hosting the Games to a public vote. But through the legislative process, the public can take it upon themselves to hold a vote on the matter.

No Boston Olympics is the most vocal and organized opposition to bringing the Games to Boston. There are two possible avenues they could take in order to bring the Olympics question to a vote, though it’s unclear at this time what they plan to do.

“In our case, everything is still on the table. The key is finding the best way to give Massachusetts residents a voice,” Aaron Leibowitz, spokesperson for No Boston Olympics, told BostInno. “There’s a widespread feeling across the Commonwealth that bringing the Games to Boston is a bad idea… whether it’s a ballot initiative, working with the Legislature, or some combination, we plan to explore all of our options.”

Brian McNiff, spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin, told BostInno there are two ways the opposition could call for a vote: through a non-binding public policy petition at the municipal level, or a more complicated statewide petition.

Right now, though, McNiff said “it’s too early to tell” how the matter will move forward.

The Attorney General’s office was not willing to speculate on how the opposition could and will proceed. The office did, however, provide background on the legislative process.

Option 1

For a municipal referendum, the first step would be to secure the signatures of 10 percent of Boston’s registered voter population. For the 2013 mayoral election, Boston recorded 372,064 residents were registered to vote, meaning some 37,000 signatures would need to be collected.

The trade-off though, as mentioned, is that the vote would be non-binding. As McNiff confirmed, this essentially means the vote could be ignored.

The more likely scenario will be a push for a statewide petition.

Option 2

According to the Massachusetts Constitution, at least 10 signatures must be presented to the Attorney General in support of the measure by a date in August. Maura Healey, the new Attorney General, would be the one presented with the petition, meaning that it would be her responsibility moving forward to determine if it’s constitutional or not.

Further it must not be “the same as any measure which has been qualified for submission or submitted to the people within three years.”

If the petition passes the Attorney General’s office, it can then be filed with the Massachusetts Secretary’s office “not earlier than the first Wednesday of the September before the assembling of the general court.”

Once this hurdle is cleared the petitioners would need to gather even more signatures.

For the 2013-2014 process, 68,911 signatures were needed to be filed with local election officials by late November and then with the Secretary of State by the first Wednesday in December.

The measure is then sent over to the Legislature for the start of the new session in January. Assuming the petition isn’t enacted by May, more signatures are required by early July (in 2013, it was 11,485 signatures). If the Legislature does not take any action, the petition will be on the ballot for 2016.

Moving in a timely fashion for Olympics opponents is crucial for heading off pro-Olympic supporters and possibly the International Olympics Committee. A decision by the IOC won’t be handed down until 2017 so if No Boston Olympics and the like are able to file the petition with the required amount of signatures prior to the set deadlines, Bay Staters could prohibit the Games from being held in Boston similar to how Denver did so in 1976.