In Maine, three campaigns submitted signatures for initiatives this week to make the ballot for November 7, 2023. The signatures were submitted to the Secretary of State. If the minimum valid signature requirement is met, the initiatives with enough signatures will appear on the ballot for voters to approve.
The initiatives were submitted ahead of the January 2023 deadline and before the November 8 general election.
On October 31, the Our Power campaign announced that it submitted more than 80,000 signatures to the Secretary of State for an initiative that would create a consumer-owned electric transmission and distribution utility called the Pine Tree Power Company to replace Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant. On the same day, the Maine Affordable Energy Coalition submitted more than 92,000 signatures for an initiative that would require voter approval for certain entities and electric cooperatives to incur a debt that exceeds $1 billion. The Maine Affordable Energy Coalition said that the Our Power proposal to eliminate CMP and Versant, replacing it with the Pine Tree Power company, would exceed $1 billion.
