The political fallout stemming from the weekend revelation that the office of Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D-Hallowell) has recalled thousands of misprinted Maine plates has begun gathering velocity like a rolling boulder in the Oxford Hills.
The ink isn’t even dry on the replacement tags but the social-networking ridiculers have gotten a jump start on Election Season 2026.
“This is the Democrats’ achievement for this term!” Keith Costigan of Benton posted on Facebook.“
“Another Democrap crowning moment in Maine!” said Facebookers posting as Phyllis ‘n Bob Walker of Etna. “Brought to you by The Mills/Bellows, ACME License Plate Company.”
The Mills/Bellows administration has been touting Maine’s new plates. That thousands of the faulty Canadian exports are being recalled has become a major embarrassment.
The numbers and letters on 3,600 pairs are badly spaced, evidence prisoners did a better job making them than Waldale Manufacturing.
The Amherst, Nova Scotia company was hired by Democrat gubernatorial aspirant and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to speed up the process.
Maine’s license plates have typically been stamped out at a facility run by prison labor.
However, the prison plate-stamping machine is antiquated and couldn’t produce plates fast enough, Bellows office said.
Bellows, who’s hoping to succeed term-limited Janet Mills as governor, has said the plates needed to be done by 2026 – curiously the same year as the next statewide election.
The 3,600 pairs of plates are being reprinted and the owners of those plates are being notified by an illiterate letter:
“Your license plate number was misprinted, due to a system-wide mistake that has since been corrected. At this time, we ask that you continue to use the Pine Tree or the Classic license plates without the tree and star license plates you recently received. When your corrected license plates arrive, you must place them on the vehicle they belong to and remove the misprinted license plates.”
“Wondering whether I should even put these on now.” – u/SlitheringLizardd, Reddit.
Nothing like license plates to possibly turn an election…
Will “PL8 G8T” turn out to be Bellows’ “October Surprise?”
“If you want your state government to screw your life even more, vote for Shenna B.” – @Mustard777Seed
@Unquirer is calling it “Shenna’s Folly.”
“This is almost a sign from above – Mainers didn’t want this stupid tree and socialist star as a flag or plate. This is divine justice.”
“How is Bellows going to be governor if she can’t even vet how license plates are printed?” – Susan Cloutier
The new plates, some with a pine tree instead of a chickadee, debuted last month. Maine first plated the chickadee 25 years ago.
In some cases the bad replacement plates contain a letter superimposed over the pine tree.
The manufacturing mistake may also cause problems with E-Z Pass readers, state officials said.
This most recent imbroglio over defective plates comes on the heels of the Secretary of State’s bungling of the Real ID roll-out, causing thousands of Mainers to be caught unprepared for the federal government’s long-anticipated deadline of the requirement for Real IDs — or a passport — in order to board an airplane or enter a federal building.
[RELATED: Don’t Have Your Real ID Yet? Distracted Secretary of State Asks Feds for Another Extension]
Of the relatively few Real IDs Bellows’ office managed to issue, many of these too were found to be defective. Perhaps if she were less focused on re-engineering Maine’s voting system and more attentive to other aspects of her job, there would be fewer misfires coming from Augusta, many have suggested.
Moral to the story – hire a PRZ • NER, not a DEM • CRT.
