Maine

Maine

Here is the latest update for the three anti-initiative and referendum bills currently working their way through the Maine Legal and Veterans Affairs (LVA) Committee.

LD 1690, “An Act To Prevent Predatory Signature Gathering and Ensure a Clean Citizen Initiative and People’s Veto Process” was voted on in Committee Work Session (2/25) as Ought Not to Pass; however it has not been reported out of committee yet.

Two controversial anti-initiative bills are about to be brought up once again in the Maine Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee. Both bills would chill petitioning in Maine, and lawmakers have been hearing from activists on the issue. Fireworks are expected, and you can listen in right now live via the Legislature’s website by clicking here.

Ballot Box

As I anticipated, yesterday’s work session in the Maine Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee discussion centered on Senator Seth Berry’s bill, the amended version of LD 1690 (LD 1690-A), that contains provisions meant to curtail the ballot initiative and People’s Veto referendum rights of Mainers. LD 1730, with similar provisions, was also slated to be discussed but was not.

A bill that would impose new standards governing the citizen’s initiative and people’s veto ballot process was killed today by a legislative policy committee. Democratic House Majority Whip Seth Berry, of Bowdoinham, says his bill was an attempt to bring greater accountability and transparency to the process of bringing issues to ballot, but Republican opponents saw the proposal as an attempt to complicate and discourage signature-gathering efforts.

Partisan flare-ups erupted Monday during a work session on bills sponsored by two prominent Democratic legislators who say that citizen initiatives and people’s vetoes are vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. Republican opponents of both bills see the legislation as a way to hamstring citizens who want exercise their right to influence government policies at the ballot box. State Sen. Debra Plowman says she had it with Democratic efforts to tighten up some perceived loose ends in the state’s citizen initiative laws.

Maine State CapitolToday, long time ballot initiative rights activist””and Citizens in Charge Foundation Maine Citizen State Coordinator””Mary Adams informed the Maine Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee of the harm posed to the citizen initiative process by a series of bills.

Maine lawmakers are considering some measures aimed at tightening the state’s voter initiative process. The Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee is hearing testimony today on three measures: LD 1690 would require an electronic list of certified signatures and give potential challengers more time to look them over; LD 1692 would require petition drive organizers to let people know the amount and source of money required to implement the initiative; and LD 1730 would hike penalties for fraud. Some signatures gathered in recent drives have turned out to be bogus.

The Portland Press Herald has this brief news story today about the legal challenge to MaineMaine’s Secretary of State over certifying petition signatures.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday to knock a people’s veto referendum off of the June 2010 ballot relies on a complete misunderstanding of settled petition law. According to the Portland Press Herald:

“John Paterson of Bernstein Shur in Portland, the attorney representing Johnson, said a review shows Dunlap should have thrown out “an extensive number” of other signatures, including entire pages circulated by people who were not registered Maine voters.”

Despite living in one of the nation’s most heavily taxed states, Maine voters on Tuesday soundly rejected proposals that would have reduced automobile excise taxes and put limits on future increases on state and local government spending and taxes. Mainers also approved a ballot question that expands the state’s medical marijuana law by allowing for retail dispensaries from which the drug can be distributed to patients.

Read the story from The Associated Press

2009 Ballot Measure Results

Wed, Nov 4 2009 by Staff

The results are in from the numerous ballot measures that were voted on yesterday.  It looks like about half passed and half did not. Next year should be quite a bit bigger in terms of the number of citizen-initiatives on the ballot.  You can check out the results here.

BP

What's On the Ballot Today?

Tue, Nov 3 2009 by Staff

It’s election day today in many states around the country. Even though it’s technically an off-election year there are still many initiatives and referenda on ballots in many states. Make sure to get out and vote today on the ballot measures in your state. Here’s Ballotpedia.org’s list of state-wide ballot measures being voted on today.

BPO

 

Numerous issues on the ballot today

Tue, Nov 3 2009 — Source: Bloomberg

Maine and Washington voters will weigh in on gay marriage today, as New Jersey seeks $400 million for land preservation and Ohio decides whether to allow casinos.

Read the story from Bloomberg

The battle over legalizing gay marriage in Maine - which will be decided by voters on election day next week - is still a draw with 48 percent wanting to keep a new law that permits the unions while 47 percent want to overturn it, according to a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll conducted Oct. 26-28. Five percent are undecided. The margin of error is 4 points.

Read the story from Politics Daily

Maine has 5 different citizen initiated measures on the ballot next Tuesday.  Recent polls show a swing in the level of support for the two tax measures since the last poll earlier in October. You can check out the poll breakdown here.

Also, the group supporting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights measure is calling for an investigation into allegedly improper use of taxpayer money and legislative time.