Judge rules language of voter ID referendum doesn't need to change
A group campaigning to require photo identification while voting had sued the secretary of state over the wording of the question.
"I take seriously my constitutional responsibility to write referendum questions as clearly and understandably as possible," Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in a statement Friday afternoon. "I'm pleased that the Superior Court ruled that the ballot question regarding changes to Maine election laws met the standards set forth in Maine law."
The proposal to require photo identification from voters at Maine polling places and adopt other voting restrictions qualified for this November's ballot in February.
The ballot question reads: "Do you want to change Maine election laws to eliminate two days of absentee voting, prohibit requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limit the number of drop boxes, require voters to show certain photo ID before voting, and make other changes to our elections?"
Bellows and other opponents of the referendum have criticized advocates for promoting the measure only as a voter ID mandate when it would also make it harder to vote absentee and make other changes to election laws that officials say would be difficult and expensive to implement.
Supporters of the referendum, Voter ID for ME, claimed in a statement last month that the wording misrepresents their proposal, saying it "buries the core intent" and that "it fails to meet the constitutional and statutory standards of clarity, accuracy, and impartiality."
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, who is helping lead the campaign to require voter ID in Maine, said she is disappointed in the outcome.
"But, we're also confident that Mainers are going to support this common sense measure, despite Secretary of State Bellows' best efforts to confuse the issue," Libby said in a phone call Friday.
View this document on Scribd
She said the campaign is "still considering future options."
"The vast majority of Mainers do support voter ID across party lines," Libby said. "We are looking forward to becoming the 37th state with voter ID as law in November."
The court concluded "that the question as formulated by the secretary is understandable and not misleading."
The ruling rejects the petitioners' claims that the question is too difficult for voters to understand due to technical language, specifically the term "ongoing absentee voter status," and is vague in regard to the term "make other changes to our elections."
The decision found that the language "does not render the question not understandable" and states that "no ballot question could practically identify every one of the twenty-seven changes to Maine's election laws proposed by the initiative, nor is the secretary required to formulate a question that does so."
Other terms that the petitioners claimed were vague were also deemed not to compromise a voter's ability to understand them.
Copy the Story Link
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here's the latest in the labour dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants
OTTAWA — Air Canada flight attendants remain on strike despite back-to-work orders by the Canada Industrial Relations Board. Over the weekend, the federal government asked the board to send the two sides to binding arbitration and order an end to the job action. But the union is challenging the order in Federal Court, and the 10,000 workers have stayed on strike. This morning the labour board declared the strike unlawful and ordered the union's leadership to tell the flight attendants to go back to work. Here's the latest. All times ET. 9:30 a.m. Prime Minister Mark Carney says he's disappointed Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants weren't able to reach a deal after eight months of negotiations. He tells reporters on Parliament Hill he is urging both sides to quickly resolve the situation. 9 a.m. Air Canada says the Canada Industrial Relations Board has declared the strike unlawful and has ordered the union's leadership to direct its members to return to work. The order came as picketers continued to march around the Terminal 1 departure doors at Toronto Pearson International Airport early Monday morning. Chants reverberated through the sliding doors and into the airport terminal, where passengers approached Air Canada employees to ask about alternatives to their cancelled flights. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2025. The Canadian Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Newsmax agrees to pay $67M settlement in defamation case over 2020 election claims
DENVER (AP) — The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming a voting equipment company by spreading lies about President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, according to documents filed Monday. The settlement comes after Fox News paid $787.5 million to settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers describe as $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was a target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled earlier that Newsmax did indeed defame Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false information about the company and its equipment. But Davis left it to a jury to eventually decide whether that was done with malice, and, if so, how much Dominion deserved from Newsmax in damages. Newsmax and Dominion reached the settlement before the trial could take place. The settlement was disclosed by Newsmax on Monday in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the deal was reached Friday. The disclosure came as Trump vowed in a social media post Monday to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines such as those supplied by Dominion and other companies. It was unclear how the president could achieve that. Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he will sign executive order and lead ‘movement' against mail-in voting
Donald Trump says he plans to 'lead a movement' to 'get rid of' mail-in voting and the use of voting machines to process ballots before 2026 midterm elections. The president — whose false and inflated claims about early voting span more than a decade — once again amplified bogus claims about vote-by-mail ballots and voting machines on his Truth Social account with a lengthy post baselessly accusing Democratic officials of cheating and being 'virtually unelectable' without using mail-in ballots. He said Monday that he intends to sign an executive order 'to help bring HONESTY' to upcoming elections. The president then falsely said that states, which administer elections, are 'merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes.' 'They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,' he wrote. 'I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS,' Trump wrote. 'THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!!' Nearly a third of all ballots cast in the 2024 election were submitted by mail, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. If Trump tries to implement a total ban on mail-in and absentee ballots, voters in the military as well as disabled voters and voters who cannot show up in person on Election Day wouldn't be able to cast a vote. Earlier this year, a federal judge blocked Trump's executive order that sought to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day but arrived later. 'Mail-in voting remains a vital safeguard of our democracy. It ensures that voters with disabilities, those without transportation access, and others who rely on its flexibility and access can exercise their right to vote,' the ACLU's Voting Rights Project director Sophia Lin Lakin said Monday. 'President Trump's attempts to undermine a safe, proven, and reliable method of voting — that he himself uses — along with his attacks on voting technology, are just another part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable,' she added. Trump continues to falsely insist Joe Biden lost the 2020 presidential election, sowing doubt about the veracity of election results to construct his lie of 'stolen' and 'rigged' elections. In 2020, nearly half of Republicans believed that any eligible voter should be allowed to vote by mail if they want to, according to polling from the Pew Research Center. Four years later, only 28 percent of Republicans agreed with that. Trump's narrative has also supported his attempts to reverse election results in states he lost, inspired Republican-led legislation in nearly every state to change how elections are run, and was central to his 2024 campaign. The president elevated those false claims while his own campaign was pleading with Republican voters last year to request mail-in ballots and use the exact same election tools that Trump and his allies have tried to criminalize. Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee launched 'Swamp the Vote,' which used contact information from people who signed up to get campaign updates to 'generate new absentee or mail ballot registrations and early in-person voting commitments.' 'You need to make a plan, register, and vote any way possible,' Trump said in a statement announcing the plan. The president's election lies were also central to criminal cases against him in Georgia and in Washington, D.C, where his claims helped fuel violence at the Capitol on January 6. Trump's Truth Social post comes just days after he claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that the 2020 election was 'rigged' because of mail-in voting. 'Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things,' Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week. 'He said 'your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,'' Trump claimed. 'He said, 'mail in voting, every election — no country has mail-in voting. It's impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.' And he said that to me … because we talked about 2020. He said, 'you won that election by so much.'' At least 34 other countries allow postal voting, including at least a dozen — such as Canada, Germany, New Zealand, South Korea and Sweden — that allow voting by mail for all voters. Russia has allowed mail-in voting in some circumstances as recently as 2020. Asked on Sunday why Trump and Putin had discussed mail-in voting during their summit in Alaska, Russia expert Fiona Hill told CBS News that Putin wants the country to 'tie ourselves up in knots between now and the midterms' in 2026. 'Putin wants to sow chaos in the American electoral system,' Hill said. The Russian president 'used his time with President Trump to push that along,' she said. 'It's a pure blatant piece of manipulation and that's the kind of thing that Putin likes to do.'
