A Republican lawmaker is calling for a constitutional amendment to make sure noncitizens are not allowed to vote in Maine in the future.

While the Maine Constitution already says a person must be a U.S. citizen to vote in state elections, the proposal would change the wording to stipulate that “only” citizens, rather than “every” citizen in Maine, has the right to vote in state elections.

It also adds language to prevent Maine cities and towns from allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections.

The bill was the subject of a public hearing Monday and comes amid a federal crackdown on immigration and calls for tighter security around voting access. A separate proposal headed toward a statewide referendum this fall would require photo identification to vote in future Maine elections.

“This amendment is absolutely critical to upholding the integrity of our electoral system,” said Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, the sponsor of LD 175.

Libby told the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee that a change in the wording of the constitution is needed to ensure that only citizens may vote in municipal elections — something that’s currently codified in state law, but not in the Maine Constitution.

Committee members also heard testimony Monday on a Republican bill to end the use of ranked choice voting in Maine.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows opposed both bills and said the proposed constitutional amendment targeting noncitizens is unnecessary and harms immigrants by falsely implying they are voting when they should not be.

“Non-citizen voting is already prohibited under the Maine Constitution and by federal and state law,” Bellows said. “This bill has been introduced based on a lie that non-citizen voting is a problem in our elections that needs resolving.”

The proposal would require two-thirds support in both chambers of the Legislature to be sent to voters in a referendum, a key step to approving any constitutional amendment. Democrats have majorities in both chambers, and Libby’s proposal does not list co-sponsors from either party.

Libby, who is also leading the effort to require voters to show photo ID at the polls, pointed to proposals in Portland and municipalities in other states to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, such as for city council or school board. Proposals for non-citizen voting in city elections have come up more than once in recent years in Portland, where a large number of asylum seekers have resettled.

A Portland commission examined the issue in 2022, but ultimately ended up not moving forward after the Maine Office of the Attorney General said state statute requires that voters in municipal elections be U.S. citizens and that Portland would have to first seek a change in state law.

Libby also cited an unsubstantiated report on a conservative website, which said it obtained records showing five noncitizens voted in Maine elections in the past six years.

Asked by lawmakers if she investigated the report, Bellows said her office requested the records cited by the website.

“We did our due diligence, but we were not presented with names or specific, credible information and there is no indication that in fact that is true (that non-citizens are voting in Maine),” Bellows said.

Bellows said moving forward with a constitutional amendment could feed into anti-immigrant rhetoric. “I’d be upset about the demonization of immigrants and the suggestion, the lie that they are manipulating our system when it simply is not happening,” Bellows said.

Alysia Melnick, an attorney who testified on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, argued against placing an additional barrier to allowing non-citizens to vote in important local elections, such as school board races, when many have children attending schools and are paying taxes.

Local towns and cities and the state Legislature could decide in the future to grant that right, whereas that would no longer be possible if the constitution changes, she said.

“The committee should not give in to the urge to stigmatize and de-value non-citizens and should instead turn its attention to proactive legislation to expand rights and freedoms,” Melnick said.

No supporters of the bill testified at Monday’s public hearing, though several filed testimony online.

“(The bill) would help to restore Maine citizens’ faith in the fact that those on our voter rolls are legally allowed to be there,” wrote one supporter, Burnell Bailey of South Berwick.

Ranked choice voting

Rep. Dick Campbell, R-Orrington, is sponsoring the bill to repeal the state’s ranked choice voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference in races featuring three or more people. If no candidate gets more than 50% on the first round of voting, an instant runoff is held to determine the winner.

The process was put in place through a citizen’s initiative in 2016 and reaffirmed in a 2018 referendum.

But Campbell’s proposal,  LD 234, is among a handful of Republican-sponsored bills this session that seek to repeal ranked choice voting.

“Citizens are unsure when this system applies or how to complete what should be a simple ballot,” Campbell said. “The growing consensus is that ranked choice voting violates the belief in one person, one vote, leaving much of the electorate feeling confused and frustrated when the candidate with the most votes loses.”

It’s unlikely Campbell’s bill would pass without any Democratic support, and there are no Democratic co-sponsors listed on the legislation.

Bellows, a Democrat who worked on getting ranked choice voting implemented in Maine prior to taking office, dismissed the criticism. “As Maine’s chief election official and an administrator, we have found that voters do appreciate the option to rank the candidates on their ballots and have found it easy to vote in this manner,” Bellows said.

Maine uses ranked choice voting for all federal elections and for state primaries, and is one of just two states along with Alaska that use the process at the statewide level. The process has gained attention in other states in recent years, though measures that would have implemented ranked choice voting in several other states, including Colorado, Nevada and Oregon, were rejected last fall.

Maine’s system could see some changes this year, even if it’s not completely overhauled.

Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, is proposing a bill to forego ranked choice runoffs in races where one candidate doesn’t get 50% of the vote because of the number of blank ballots.

The bill is aimed at preventing situations similar to what arose last fall in the 2nd Congressional District race between Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, Republican challenger Austin Theriault and write-in candidate Diana Merenda.

Merenda’s presence in the race as a write-in candidate was what forced a ranked choice runoff, though it was a larger number of “blank” ballots that actually prevented Golden from getting 50% on the first round. Blanks included ballots with no candidate selected as well as undeclared write-ins.

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