Voter ID for ME has gathered more than double the number of signatures required to create a ballot measure, giving citizens the chance to choose whether the state should require photo ID for voters.
[RELATED: Voter IDs Are Discriminatory, Burdensome, and Unnecessary: AG Garland…]
“I am so proud of our Voter ID for ME team, and the HUNDREDS of volunteers who have invested their time to accomplish this incredible feat! Alex Titcomb, our Executive Director and the visionary of this effort, has done a remarkable job leading Voter ID for ME to this result, and we are looking forward to Maine people getting to make THEIR voices heard in the ballot box,” Said Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) on Facebook.
Rep. Libby, Executive Director Alex Titcomb, and volunteers for the initiative have worked in previous legislative sessions to amend Maine’s current election laws.
Those efforts have failed due to opposition from Democrats, who have controlled both houses of the legislature since 2018.
The group announced their success on Monday after collecting over 125,000 signatures on November 5th alone.
While most ballot initiatives manage to collect the large number of signatures required to get on the ballots only with the help of paid signature gathers, Libby and Titcomb’s group accomplished the feat with the help of hundreds of volunteers.
Citizens hoping to turn their petition into a ballot measure must collect a number of signatures equal to ten percent of the votes cast in the state’s most recent gubernatorial election. Currently, citizens’ initiatives need 67,682 signatures to get their measures on the ballot.
According to Voter ID for ME, the group has collected more than 165,000 signatures as of Monday, more than double the statutory requirement.
The initiative will now hand its signatures over to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) for review. The review process will entail validating the signatures and may or may not be carried out by Bellows, depending on whether she’s reappointed by the lawmakers to serve as Secretary of State in December.
The initiative’s website set a 100,000 signature goal, hoping to significantly exceed the required number to offset any signatures that Bellows — or whomever may be the next Secretary of State — decides to reject.
“Collecting more than the required amount compensates for signatures that may be rejected by the Secretary of State. We’ll succeed in getting the question on the ballot,” says the initiative.
If Voter ID for ME’s signatures are validated, the citizens’ initiative could be on the ballot as early as Nov. 2025. If successful, the election integrity measure could be implemented prior to Maine’s next election for governor in 2026.
Bellows made a public statement last year opposing a bill meant to institute a photo ID requirement for Maine voters.
She claimed that the requirement “infringes” on the freedom to vote and suggested that a voter ID requirement would somehow pose a barrier to ethnic minorities.
“The bill could reduce faith in our elections by making participation for certain types of voters – black, indigenous, people of color, people living in poverty, seniors or people living in rural areas – more complicated and burdensome. It could also undermine faith in elections by increasing lines at the polls and headaches for voters,” said Bellows.
House Republican Leader Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) celebrated the success of the grassroots initiative in a statement provided to The Maine Wire.
“I’ve been working on this issue for 6 years through the legislature and the citizens referendum process and I could not be happier or more grateful to see this effort get the signatures necessary to go forward. This will change the face of Maine elections. I look forward to doing whatever I can to help this get passed when it is on the ballot,” said Rep. Faulkingham.
The Maine Wire also reached out to former House Speaker and State Senator-elect Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland), but did not receive a response.
Maine currently does not require photo ID for anyone registering to vote.
Instead, the registrant must simply sign a document claiming to be a citizen and provide any form of ID.
Acceptable ID includes out-of-state IDs, utility bills, or bank statements.
The state does nothing to verify signatures or claims of citizenship.
The Maine Wire published a bombshell report in October showing that multiple individuals identified in Medicaid records as non-citizens have voted in the state’s elections since 2016.
Under Maine’s current voter security measures, there’s little to prevent non-citizens from inadvertently registering to vote, voting, or having absentee ballots pulled in their names.
While photo ID laws have been opposed by Democratic politicians at the state and federal levels, the vast majority of Americans support voter ID requirements, according to public opinion polling on the topic.
A Gallup poll published last month found that 84 percent of Americans want photo ID requirements for voters, and 83 percent want anyone registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship.
Georgia passed election integrity measures in 2021, causing a massive outcry from Democratic politicians claiming that it constituted voter suppression, with President Joe Biden even comparing the law to the Jim Crow era.
Despite the claims from numerous Democrats that Georgia’s election integrity measures would suppress voters, 2024 saw a record 72.7 percent turnout of registered voters, bringing in 5,290,718 voters after the alleged voter-suppressing measures were implemented.
Vice President Kamala Harris won all but two of the 14 states that do not request ID from voters, losing only the key non-Voter ID swing states of Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Currently, only Oregon, California, Nevada, Minnesota, New Mexico, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and Washington DC do not request ID from voters.
