AUGUSTA – A coalition that wants to preserve election-day voter registration in Maine launched a petition drive Friday in hopes of forcing a referendum on the issue as early as November.

The new Protect Maine Votes Political Action Committee held news conferences in Bangor, Lewiston and Portland to begin a signature collection drive, which organizers said will have a presence this weekend in 11 of Maine’s 16 counties.

Using the people’s veto provision in the state Constitution, the organizers want to force a statewide vote on repealing the law that was passed last month to prohibit voter registration within two business days of an election.

Supporters of the law say many cities and towns lack the staffing to accommodate an ever-increasing number of last-minute registrations.

The law to get rid of Maine’s 38-year-old same-day registration law passed with support from the Republican majority and opposition from Democrats.

To force a referendum in November, the coalition must collect at least 57,277 voters’ signatures by Aug. 8. If it fails to do that, it will have until Sept. 27 to turn in the signatures for a referendum in June 2012.

For now, coalition members are focused on November.

“We have an aggressive signature-gathering process in place that targets the November ballot,” said campaign spokesman David Farmer, but organizers are realistic about the challenge of rounding up so many signatures by Aug. 8.

Farmer said the campaign is prepared to extend its effort toward a June vote.

Coalition members, including the Maine Civil Liberties Union, the Maine League of Conservation Voters, the League of Women Voters of Maine, the Maine AFL-CIO, the Maine People’s Alliance, EqualityMaine, the Maine Education Association and Homeless Voices for Justice, say the new law wipes out a 38-year tradition of election-day registration that helps to keep Maine among the states with the highest voter turnouts.

“It’s part of our heritage as a state that values local participation, town meetings and local control. The Legislature should not have taken that basic democratic right away from Mainers,” said Mark Gray, campaign manager for Protect Maine Votes.

While no opposition campaign has surfaced, Maine Republican Party Chairman Charles Webster said a coalition will be organized if the signature-gathering effort succeeds.

“I’m just stepping back and seeing what they do,” Webster said.

Webster said his side will hold a news conference this month to discuss voting abuses that have occurred under the same-day registration law.

Webster said same-day registration is not a priority for most Mainers.

“It’s not an issue that working people, regular people, are concerned about,” he said.

Maine’s chief election official, Secretary of State Charlie Summers, has approved the wording of the referendum question: “Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?”

 

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