MAINE SENATE GIVES INITIAL APPROVAL TO SEND EARLY VOTING TO THE PEOPLE

Measure encourages greater voter participation

AUGUSTA—This morning, the Maine Senate voted 24-11, largely along party lines, to allow the people of Maine to vote on expanding early voting.

“We should all be in support of any action that allows people greater access to vote,” said Senate Majority Leader Seth Goodall, D-Richmond. “But, even if you aren’t, let the people of Maine decide. Put it to the voters. They should be the ones to decide something as fundamental as voting–who are we to make that judgment for them?”

The bill, which proposes to change the Maine Constitution to allow for early voting in the days prior to an election, requires approval directly from voters.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do in this body to make it easy enough for people to vote,” added Senator Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick. “The more we can do to encourage Maine voters to vote, the better off as a state we will always be.”

In some Maine towns, absentee ballots account for 60 percent of votes cast. Under early voting, clerks would not have to process so many absentee ballots on Election Day.

“Early voting helps working people and rural Mainers,” said Assistant Majority Leader Troy Jackson, D-Allagash. “Where I come from, folks in the logging industry who are working in the woods all week used to be able to go in on Saturdays until the Legislature took that right away. Strengthening early voting makes it easier for them to make their voices heard.”

Maine was the first state to institute election day voter registration. After the Republican-controlled legislature repealed this right in 2011, more than 60% of Maine voters restored same-day voter registration in a 2011 referendum vote.

Senator Gerzofsky added, “Allowing the people to vote is a cornerstone of our democracy. And last year’s change to the voting law attempted to dry up the vote. Maine needs to continue leading the nation and allow the people of Maine to decide.”

The Secretary of State’s bipartisan Elections Commission, the Maine Municipal Association, and the clerks who oversee elections in municipalities all support the bill.

The measure will now go to the House for further consideration.

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