With so much attention on national political races this fall, it was easy to miss the victory by the Protect Maine Elections campaign. If they are certified, enough signatures were collected to place on the 2023 ballot the question of foreign influence in Maine elections.

In 2020, Hydro-Quebec, a company owned by a foreign government, spent more than $22 million to influence the Maine citizen referendum focused on the Central Maine Power corridor. (The referendum passed, but the Maine supreme court ruled this summer that the vote to block the corridor could be unconstitutional if a lower court rules that work on the project was too far along at the time of the vote.) If completed, the project would deliver electricity to Massachusetts via a power line through Maine. Hydro-Quebec is in line to make more than $12 billion from the corridor’s completion.

Regardless of your opinion about the CMP corridor, the idea of a foreign government attempting to influence what happens in Maine is offensive to most of us. The 80,749 signatures submitted to the Secretary of State in November bring the question one step closer to being presented to the people of Maine for a vote.

A favorable outcome in 2023 for the Protect Maine Elections campaign will not only prohibit foreign influence in Maine, but also will empower Maine’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., to advance a constitutional amendment to set campaign fundraising and spending limits in Maine and across the country. Few will argue with the need for that!

Mary Ann Larson
Cumberland

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