A citizens initiative aimed at changing Maine’s campaign finance law is likely to come before voters at the ballot box this November.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Thursday that the petitions circulated by the effort’s organizers were found to have 76,081 valid signatures — a figure that surpasses the minimum threshold for a citizens initiative to be allowed to proceed.
Titled “An Act to Limit Contributions to Political Action Committees That Make Independent Expenditures,” the initiative will now be sent to lawmakers in Augusta for consideration.
The initiative was led by Lawrence Lessig, a political activist and professor at the Harvard Law School.
Unless the Legislature moves to adopt the bill exactly as it is written, the initiative will be placed on the ballot as a statewide referendum question this November.
Click Here to Read the Secretary of State’s Full Press Release
Maine state law defines an “independent expenditure” as any communication expense — such as for advertisements or phone banks — that clearly advocates for or against a particular candidate but is “not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, a candidate’s authorized political committee or an agent of either.”
This petition first begin circulation on October 27, 2023, and on January 23, 2024, 11,313 petition forms with 84,025 signatures submitted to the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions.
Bureau staff members determined that 76,081 signatures were valid, while 7,944 of them were not.
According to the state constitution, the initiative needed to garner a minimum of 67,682 in order to move ahead, a figure equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election.
The Secretary of State’s Office explained that 5,327 of the 7,944 invalid signatures were rejected because they “were not certified by the registrar as belonging to a registered voter in that municipality.”
Another 1,276 of these signatures were invalidated because they were duplicates of signatures that had already been accepted.
The other 1,341 rejected signatures were rejected for a number of different reasons, including because the signature had been crossed out or produced by someone other than the registered voter.
Click Here to Read the Secretary of State’s Full Decision
This past November, a majority of Mainers voted in favor of another referendum question related to campaign finance.
This measure — supported by 86.33 percent of voters — asked Mainers if they wanted to prohibit foreign governments, as well as entities owned by foreign governments, from campaigning either for or against state and local candidates, and on referendums.
[RELATED: The Results Are In: Election Day 2023]
As of now, it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will adopt “An Act to Limit Contributions to Political Action Committees That Make Independent Expenditures” exactly as it is currently written or if voters will be asked to decide its fate at the polls this November.
Lawmakers also have the option of introducing a competing proposal to appear alongside the citizens initiative on the November ballot.
Click Here for More Information on Maine’s Citizens Initiative Process
So they CAN easily verify signatures for a referendum but wont check ID’s for voting?
Must be a demoKKKrat idea. Otherwise, Commie, Can’t Understand Normal Thinking Bellows would have found a reason not to.