Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court has sided with the state’s Attorney General after the AG removed from this fall’s midterm election a ballot initiate aimed to ban transgender students from bathrooms, locker rooms and sports in public schools. The AG’s office had found more than 12,000 invalid signatures on the ballot initiative’s petition to appear before voters this November.
Reports WMTW ABC-TV 8:
That ruling means the state’s highest court says the citizen initiative will not be on the ballot in November. However, supporters of the effort said Friday they are taking the issue to federal court. …
[Said Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows,] “As a result of the Secretary’s proper invalidation of the signatures collected by these four circulators, the petition fell below the constitutional threshold for an initiative petition to be submitted to the voters of Maine. The Secretary thus correctly determined the petition to be invalid,” the justices wrote in their ruling, issued on Friday.
“Citizen initiatives are a powerful tool of direct democracy in our state, and Maine voters should have just as much confidence in petition integrity as they do in the security of our elections. This petition did not meet the legal requirements for inclusion and therefore did not qualify for the ballot after our legal review. I am grateful but not surprised by the court’s ruling affirming our decision.” . . .
[Said David Farmer, campaign manager for the Campaign for Free and Fair Schools,] “An out-of-state billionaire barged into Maine and tried to buy our ballot initiative process. It didn’t work. Mainers saw what was happening, they paid attention, and they caught signature collectors acting inappropriately.
“After reviewing the evidence, the Secretary of State determined that they had not collected enough valid signatures to place a question on the ballot. Maine’s election laws protect our democracy and ensure that elections are free and fair. The campaign that tried to attack transgender students broke the rules, it didn’t follow the law and the Maine Supreme Court rejected their appeal. It’s a good day for the rule of law in Maine.”