(The Center Square) — Backers of a plan to require photo identification to vote in Maine elections collected more than 170,000 signatures to put the question on the ballot this year.
The group Voter ID for Maine submitted the signed petitions on Monday to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office for review and certification, the first of several hurdles to make the November ballot.
“Maine people are reasonable,” Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, one of the lead organizers of the effort, said in remarks at a press briefing. “They want to have confidence that we have strong elections in our state and they understand that requiring an ID to vote is not radical. It’s not extreme. It’s common sense.”
At least 36 states require voters to present some form of identification before voting, but only nine of those states have strict photo ID requirements, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“Thirty-six other states have recognized the importance of strengthening our elections, of protecting the democratic process,” Libby said. “And yet, Maine, lags behind.”
Under the proposal, voters who don’t have ID or forget to bring it with them would still be allowed to cast a ballot by filling out a provisional ballot. However, they would have to show a photo ID to a local election official within four days of the election for their vote to count. The acceptable forms of ID would include a Maine driver’s license or identification card, a U.S. passport or passport card or U.S. military identification.
However, the proposal includes other provisions, including restrictions on the number of drop boxes each city or town puts out before the election to collect absentee ballots. It would also roll back the deadline to request an absentee ballot, end the practice of mailing blank absentee ballots to voters ahead of each election cycle and prevent third parties from submitting an absentee ballot on behalf of another voter.
That prompted Bellows, a Democrat whose office must review and certify the petitions for the ballot, to call the group’s proposal a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“Reasonable people can agree to disagree about whether specific types of voter ID should be shown when you go to vote … but the citizen’s initiative presented to us today has so much more that is really problematic,” she told reporters.
Maine Republicans have pushed for years to require voter ID, pointing to state and national polls showing bipartisan support for the requirements. However, Democrats who control the governor’s office and state Legislature have repeatedly rejected the proposals.