A Hallowell Democrat has introduced a bill to expand the use of overseas absentee ballots for local elections. In last year’s federal and state elections, absentee ballots swung the Second District congressional race and gave Democrats the majority for the 132nd Maine State Legislature.
“An Act to Improve Access to Absentee Ballots for Municipal Elections for
Uniformed Service and Overseas Voters (UOCAVA),” or LD 1148, will be taken up by the Veterans and Legal Affairs (VLA) Committee in a public hearing at 10 a.m. Monday morning.
Sponsored by Representative Daniel Shagoury (D-Hallowell) and cosponsored by several notable Democrats including Majority Leader Matt Moonen (D-Portland), VLA Senate Chair Craig Hickman (D-Winthrop), VLA House Chair Laura Supica (D-Bangor) and Maine Democratic Party staff member Marc Malon (D-Biddeford), the bill appears to be an entirely partisan measure.
The draft legislation aims to mandate that municipalities provide a copy of their local ballots to the Secretary of State for all municipal elections to be held on the same date as a statewide election. According to the bill’s summary, LD 1148 authorizes the Secretary of State to receive local ballots from municipalities holding elections during statewide elections and to issue those ballots to uniformed service voters and overseas voters who are eligible to receive them.
Curiously, the bill also authorizes the Secretary of State to receive absentee ballots for such municipal elections from a uniformed service voter or an overseas voter at a central location and to deliver those local ballots to the uniformed service voters’ or overseas voters’ municipalities by the close of the polls on election day.
Patti Dubois, chairperson of the Legislative Policy Committee for the Maine Town and City Clerks’ Association, submitted written testimony in support of the bill. She wrote on behalf of her organization:
“Members were in favor of having the Secretary of State issue ballots electronically to
UOCAVA voters in municipal elections but questioned whether the service would be
available when the municipal election is not held on the same day as a state election.
Inconsistency with election procedures is difficult for voters to understand,”
DuBois continued in her testimony:
“Members felt that providing municipal ballots with state ballots to UOCAVA voters may
increase the return rate of those absentee ballots for local elections. Members did express concern on how the voted ballots would be returned to municipalities to be counted on election night.”
UOCAVA votes swayed the Second District Congressional Race to re-elect Congressman Jared Golden (D-ME) over race car driver challenger Austin Theriault, then a Republican state representative for Fort Kent. This occurred after a tight Ranked Choice Voting recount. UOCAVA votes also tipped the scales in enough races in the right legislative races last November to give Maine Democrats continued control of Maine’s House and Senate.
Maine’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, has announced that she is running to be Maine’s next governor. That election will be held in November of 2026. In the interim, Bellows has decreed that she will not step down from her position as Secretary of State. She has also stated that there is no conflict of interest with the office who counts the votes having its Chief Executive Officer on the ballots that they will be counting.
Bellows’ conflicts go further in the recent past. Early last year, she sought to strike Donald Trump’s Presidential Ballot Access and more recently opposed President Trump’s recent Executive Order regarding election integrity reform. Given her past partisan machinations, Maine conservatives may find themselves questioning whether they want to the Secretary of State to be in possession of municipal UOCAVA ballots instead of having the towns handle them directly.
The only other testimony aside from DuBois written support was from Maine citizen Diane Vernesoni of Topsham. Vernesconi expressed concerns with the bill:
“This bill states that UOCAVA ballots will be good for 18 months and kept in a ‘central location,’ not specified as secure, and brought to the municipal election by the end of election day. This could put a lot of strain on the municipality to handle these ballots if received at 7:59 pm on election day. There is no indication that there will be a locked place for the Secretary of State to hold these. Why wouldn’t they go to the town immediately? So MANY places for a chance to manipulate the outcome of an election.”
The bill does add language to extend the existing 18-month threshold to municipal elections that occur on state-wide election days. It gives no explanation as to why ballots would not go to municipalities directly or how they would be delivered on election night.
Oh Yeah !
THIS is the extra two hundred votes for EVERY election , for every district , for every issue , that these cheating democrats WILL USE TO WIN EVERY ELECTION in the State .
There is NO WAY the democrats can be allowed to make this happen .
Cheaters !
Well its common knowledge that military people typically vote republican so for a democrat to push for this lets you know they’re planning on cheating.
Heck no! Easier to cheat you cheating cheaters!
The Marxo-fascist devilcrats never sleep, do they? They’re like a roost of vampires upon our state… always creeping around in the dark, trying to manipulate everything to the advantage of their blatantly unholy and societally destructive agenda.
As if Ranked Cheat Voting wasn’t bad enough….
This will end fair elections in Maine. The democrats will always manufacture enough votes to win. Tell me, why must ballots be held for up to 18 months? Cheating is the only answer.
Tripping over themselves figuring out ways to cheat. I now consider democrats a terrorist organization.