Secretary of State invalidates anti-trans ballot question due to improper signature gathering

This story has been updated.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Tuesday that a campaign to limit transgender students’ access to school bathrooms, locker rooms and team sports that align with their gender identity did not collect enough valid signatures to appear on the November ballot.

Bellows’ decision follows a recommendation from Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien after she presided over a hearing earlier this month regarding signature validity and found that more than 12,000 had been collected improperly.

The ballot initiative sought to require sports teams and school facilities to be separated by biological sex as opposed to gender identity, at odds with the Maine Human Rights Act. It followed several failed legislative attempts to pass similar laws, while Maine is being sued by the federal government over its transgender inclusion policy.

“Citizen initiatives are direct democracy. Just as we take voting security seriously, we take petition integrity seriously,” Bellows said in a statement. “Unfortunately, some out-of-state circulators failed to meet certain legal requirements for petitions, resulting in this initiative failing to qualify for the ballot after legal review.”

The secretary of state first determined that the question would be on the November ballot in March, after determining that the Protect Girls Sports campaign had collected enough signatures. The campaign’s signature gathering practices were cast into doubt soon after when three challengers claimed in the Maine Superior Court that 7,900 signatures previously deemed valid should be disqualified. On April 24, Justice Deborah Cashman remanded the challenge to the Secretary of State’s Office for a final determination. On May 12, McBrien and Assistant Attorney General Jon Bolton held an hours-long hearing during which both sides presented their arguments. 

Over the course of the hearing, a pattern of negligence within the campaign emerged, with signature collectors admitting to leaving petition forms unattended, among other infractions.

Tim Woodcock, an attorney with Eaton Peabody representing the petition campaign, said last week that they filed objections to the recommended decision. The campaign now has 10 days to appeal Bellows’ decision. Given the possibility of the appeal, the Secretary of State will still announce the final wording of the question should it appear on the ballot in November on Thursday.