Maine House Fails To Send Voting Rights Question to the Ballot

AUGUSTA – Maine voters will not get to decide whether they want early voting in the state, following a vote today in the Maine House of Representatives.

LD 156 would have put a question on the November ballot about whether towns should have the option of adopting early voting. Because establishing early voting would require a constitutional amendment, a two-thirds vote in favor of LD 156 was needed in both chambers. The final vote in the House was 94-55 in favor of the bill – six votes short of the number needed to send the question to voters.

The following can be attributed to Shenna Bellows, executive director of the ACLU of Maine:

“Voting is the cornerstone of democracy, and early voting would make it easier for more qualified Mainers – including senior citizens, working parents and people with limited transportation – to participate. Unfortunately, because of the votes of a small minority of legislators today, Maine voters will be denied the option of making Maine’s electoral system better and stronger.”