A public hearing is now on the books for a series of constitutional amendments that would give Mainers the right to popularly elect key constitutional officers, including the Attorney General and Secretary of State.
Because several separate resolutions have been introduced so far this session that all effectively aim accomplish this same objective in slightly different ways, the State and Local Government Committee has opted to conducted a consolidated hearing where testimony will be heard on all bills simultaneously.
The hearing is set to begin at 10am on Monday, April 7 in Room 214 of the Cross Building, which is located directly across from the State House.
Among the bills up for a hearing on April 7 are the original set of bills introduced by House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) that propose a series of individual amendments, each making one of the state’s constitutional offices a popularly elected position.
While these bills only received support from other Republican lawmakers, LD 508 was cosponsored by legislators on both sides of the political aisle.
Introduced by Sen. Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook), LD 508 proposes a singular amendment that would transform all of Maine’s constitutional offices into popularly elected positions.
Under this amendment, constitutional officers would be elected along the same timelines as state senators and representatives.
Another bipartisan bill, LD 455, aims to have Mainers popularly elect people to serve in these positions once every four years beginning in 2032.
Sen. Joe Baldacci (D-Penobscot) introduced LD 452, a bill with no cosponsors, which would see the state’s constitutional officers elected using ranked choice voting.
Testimony at the April 7 hearing will likely be limited to three minutes per person due to the expected turn out.
Those who wish to also submit testimony in writing are asked to bring twenty printed copies to the hearing room.
Testimony may also be submitted online at www.mainelegislature.org/testimony.
According to Ballotpedia — known as the “encyclopedia of American politics” — Maine is one of only seven states where the Attorney General is not popularly elected and one of only twelve states where the Secretary of State and State Treasurer are not popularly elected.
States throughout the rest of the country allow their citizens to directly elect the people who serve in these important roles, making Maine’s policy a national outlier.
Maine Republicans have been advocating to give citizens the right to popularly elect their constitutional officers for some time now.
In 2022, House Minority Leader Faulkingham issued a statement speaking out against the state’s practice of having lawmakers select the people who serve in these roles.
“Maine should do what most of the rest of the country does – have our Constitutional Officers directly elected by the people, not party insiders,” said Rep. Faulkingham.
“Maine has a long tradition of electing independent leaders that are beholden to Maine voters,” he said. “House Republicans will propose making this important change to our laws to take power away from politicians and give it to Maine citizens.”
That said, amending Maine’s Constitution is not an easy task. In order to advance an amendment, at least two-thirds of the members in both the House and Senate must vote in support of the proposal.
Most kinds of legislation can be passed with just a simple majority, and today, proposals are often advanced with only partisan, or nearly partisan, support.
Given this, the bar for constitutional amendments is set exceptionally high, especially in today’s political climate.
Should an amendment ultimately gain enough support in the Legislature, it is then sent to voters for final ratification.
Despite the tough standards for amending Maine’s Constitution, there are numerous precedents of such changes.
As of November 2023, 117 amendments to Maine’s Constitution had been approved, with the first being ratified in 1834.
Most recently, voters ratified two amendments in the November 2023 election. Both amendments, however, were largely administrative in nature, making them substantially less divisive than many policy-heavy proposals.
With the demorats running all three branches of State Government, where is this effort going? Since they run the State, why would they give up any of their power to mere Citizens?
NH still has the Governor serving a 2 year term.