On Nov. 30, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows confirmed that two citizen initiative campaigns—Protect Maine Elections and Our Power—submitted enough signatures for each initiative to be certified to the state legislature. Each initiative will have a chance of being approved by the state legislature or appearing on the Nov. 2023 ballot.
In Maine, the valid signature requirement to be certified to the state legislature is currently 63,067 valid signatures. This number is calculated as 10% of the total votes cast for the previous gubernatorial election. Both campaigns exceeded the valid signature requirement.
The Protect Maine Elections campaign submitted 67,550 valid signatures on Nov. 1, 2022. The initiative would prohibit election spending by foreign governments, including entities with partial foreign government ownership or control. The campaign said, “Our initiative stops foreign governments from spending in Maine elections, imposes new public disclosure requirements on foreign entities that engage in issue advertising, and requires that media companies disclose illegal spending by foreign powers.”
