NOTE: There was a "Comment" posted by Maine State Representative Seth Berry (Bowdoinham) on Monday's posting. You can read Rep. Berry's comments by clicking on the "Comments" for that posting. (Basically, his comments are identified as the statements within the " " which follow and the 3 specific statements which MHPC responded to in a following paragraph.)

I answered Rep. Berry's comment by writing that I would seek out information at the Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) luncheon today in Bangor where I took a print-out of Rep. Berry's comment. The following is the written response I received from Trevor Bragdon from the MHPC.

***
Rusty,
Below I have outlined the responses to Rep. Berry’s comments

“The bill would do 3 things to empower Maine voters:
1) let you know who is being paid and who is paying for your signature”

[MHPC response] Under current Maine law, payments for signature collection already have to be reported to the Maine Ethics Commission through a PAC or 1056B report. This bill would add an additional layer of bureaucracy and a way for legislators and government officials to easily identify their opponents especially on People’s Veto efforts. We do not require people working for pay on campaigns to register with the state, why should we do it for people working to collect signatures?

2) “Let you be sure the Secretary of State’s count of valid names is in fact accurate”

[MHPC response] To date there has never been a citizen’s initiative or People’s Veto that was approved by the Secretary of State to later be found invalid. The Secretary of State provides one of the most exhaustive processes in the country to verify the petitions and make sure enough were collected. This is just a ploy to allow political opponents of the initiative to have more time to examine the petitions to try to get them thrown through the court system and thwart the people’s will.

3) “Let you retract your signature if lied to by a signature gatherer”

[MHPC response] The Maine petition process is highly regulated and every signature collected needs to be witnessed by a registered Maine voter. By creating a system where people can send in a letter to remove their name from a petition, you open the door for fraud since no one will be able to witness who actually sends in the letters asking for the signature to be removed.

Overall this is a very political bill that is aimed at hurting the citizen initiative and People’s Veto. Currently, under Maine law, to collect signatures to get a legislator on the ballot you do not have to be a Maine resident, a registered voter or even over the age of 18. If Rep. Berry was really interested in reform, he would make the same standards currently in place for signature collection on a citizens initiative for when he collects signatures to get on the ballot. Right now a 10 year old Florida resident could collect all his signatures.

Here is a great story that was written by AJ Higgins of Maine Public Broadcasting about this bill.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/mpbn-capitol-connection/politics-permeate-citizen-initiative-bills/344410934851


Thanks again for coming to the luncheon and let me know if you have any more questions.

Trevor
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Trevor Bragdon
*****

TOMORROW: I'll print the proposed bill for readers to read for themselves - and submit a few thoughts of my own. In the meantime, I'm appreciative of the interest and dialogue this topic and blogspot is generating among readers and voters. As always, I believe an informed citizen/voter population is the best protection of the rights and freedoms so many have fought and died to preserve for all Americans.