Secretary of State (SoS) Shenna Bellows decided on Tuesday to remove the referendum question to protect girls’ sports and spaces from November’s ballot after previously determining that it could appear, following challenges to the legitimacy of its signatures.
[RELATED: Contentious Hearing Over Maine Girl Dads Ballot Initiative Puts Bellows’ Role Under Scrutiny…]
“Citizen initiatives are direct democracy. Just as we take voting security seriously, we take petition integrity seriously,” said Bellows in a statement provided to the Portland Press Herald.
“Unfortunately, some out-of-state circulators failed to meet certain legal requirements for petitions, resulting in this initiative failing to qualify for the ballot after legal review. I am proud of the hard work and dedication of the Secretary of State staff who work so hard to safeguard our elections for the benefit of every Maine voter,” she added.
Bellows’ ruling placed her stamp of approval on an official recommendation that she reject the ballot referendum. Her decision will now return to the Maine Superior Court for approval, where the ballot question committee, Maine Girl Dads, will have a final chance to keep their initiative on the ballot.
The Superior Court will either uphold Bellows’ decision, remand it for further consideration, or overturn her decision and place the petition on the ballot.
Petitioners will have the opportunity to gather more signatures if the court upholds the decision. That would allow them to potentially put the question on the ballot in 2027, though not 2026.
After announcing the decision, Bellows gave a press conference, where she explained that she believes two out-of-state petition circulators gathering signatures failed to follow Maine law, thus invalidating the signatures they collected.
Bellows refused to take a question from The Maine Wire during the conference, though she took questions from other news outlets.
The initiative, officially titled “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex,” would have allowed Mainers to vote on whether they want to bar males from girls’ sports and private spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.
Recent polling from Pan Atlantic found that voters would have supported the referendum by a ten-point margin.
In March, Bellows ruled that Maine Girl Dads had submitted 71,033 valid signatures, exceeding the 67,682 required, and that their referendum could appear on the ballot.
After Bellow’s decision, however, opponents filed a legal challenge against Maine Girl Dads, claiming that their petition circulators improperly gathered signatures and that enough signatures were improperly gathered to invalidate the referendum.
“There were circulators who never checked the box agreeing to submit to the laws of the state in the signature-gathering process,” said Bellows during her press conference.
Bellows’ reversal came after a contentious hearing on the challenge, which included testimony from witnesses connected to Planned Parenthood and the Maine People’s Alliance, both organizations that have endorsed Bellows’ gubernatorial campaign.
Bellow’s decision also raises conflict of interest concerns since, as a gubernatorial candidate, she could potentially appear on the same ballot as the question that is likely to drive conservative turnout.
This is not the first time Bellows has attempted to bar something or someone from the ballot by a unilateral decision. Prior to the 2024 election, she attempted to bar President Donald Trump from the ballot, but he was eventually allowed back on due to a Supreme Court decision.
Be very careful how you vote.
Think, do you want her to be he next governor of Maine?