Measure on the ballot in the 2023 Maine General Election in Maine.
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Get StartedThe intent of this proposed amendment to the Maine Constitution is to remove a provision that can no longer be enforced due to an injunction issued by a federal court. The Maine Constitution currently provides in article IV, part third, section 20, that individuals who gather signatures for petitions for citizens' initiatives or people's vetoes must be Maine residents registered to vote in their town of residence. In 2020, a group of plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit, We the People PAC v. Bellows, No. 1:20-cv-00489, claimed that these requirements violated their First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. After proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Maine and the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the District Court entered a permanent injunction prohibiting the Maine Secretary of State from enforcing the circulator residency and registration requirements. The proposed constitutional amendment would remove from the Maine Constitution these now unenforceable requirements
A "YES" vote is to remove the residency and registration requirements for petition circulators from the Maine Constitution.
A "NO" vote opposes this change to the Maine Constitution.
"This bill is simply to align the Maine Constitution with the First Circuit Cou1t s decision, which affirmed a U.S. District Court decision that requiring a circulator to be a Maine resident and to satisfy the voter registration requirements for Maine violates the First Amendment, as incorporated against the states by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." - Shenna Bellows, Secretary of State, in support of Question 7 (Learn more)
"It appears this is another attempt to further the destruction of the Maine Constitution as we have known it since "October 29, 1819", 204 years ago, our forefathers worked to make a better life for the residents of the State of Maine. We The People are witnessing the crumbling of the future for our descendants." - Linda Haskell, in opposition to Question 7 (Learn more)
Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to remove a provision requiring a circulator of a citizen's initiative or people's veto petition to be a resident of Maine and a registered voter in Maine, requirements that have been ruled unconstitutional in federal court?
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