Voting rights are under attack again, this time at the federal level, while in Maine, the governor’s veto killed two bills that would increase transparency in campaign financing.

U.S. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, in a statement earlier this week said she was disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn part of the Voting Rights Act.

Pingree said the act, which was first approved by Congress in 1964, helps to monitor and discourage voting discrimination.

In its ruling Tuesday, the court found Sections 4 and 5 of the act to be unconstitutional. Section 4 identifies state and local governments with a history of voting discrimination, and Section 5 requires them to get approval from the Department of Justice before making any changes to their voting laws or procedures, Pingree said. She added that between 1982 and 2006, the Department of Justice blocked more than 700 voting changes based on a determination that the changes were discriminatory, and 800-plus more proposed changes were modified or abandoned after the department requested more information from the districts.

It’s unfortunate that the Supreme Court has failed to see the importance of these regulations, because voter discrimination certainly does exist, and in many states in recent years, it’s become more difficult to vote than ever before. Putting more obstacles between people and voting booths is a major step backward, and we hope Congress will work to create guidelines to prevent discrimination that will also pass muster with the Supreme Court.

Here in Maine, on Wednesday, the Legislature failed to overturn Gov. Paul LePage’s vetoes of two bills, LD 1271 and 1023.

The first, LD 1271, which calls for higher potential penalties for campaign finance reporting violations in the weeks leading up to the election, was approved by the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee and passed by both the House and Senate before the governor’s veto.

This week, the House voted to override the veto, but the effort failed in the Senate by just one vote, according to Andrew Bossie, executive director of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections. Bossie said the bill only aimed to encourage compliance in reporting, stating, “We don’t understand the rationale for vetoing this modest bill.”

Neither do we. Nor do we understand the veto and vote to uphold it for the second bill, LD 1023, either.

That bill would have regulated post-election fundraising by a governor-elect.

Today, Bossie said, this fundraising is completely unregulated. The bill also contained a provision barring the governor-elect from directly soliciting donations for his or her transition and inaugural expenses.

LePage has claimed that he is trying to be transparent in budget processes so Maine people know how their tax dollars are being spent. It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t think the same rule should apply to himself and other politicians.

These attacks on voting and transparency shouldn’t stand, but they will unless Maine ”“ and all ”“ voters stand up and do something about it. Although the current session in Maine is complete, residents here can still contact their state representatives and senators to let them know the erosion of the clean elections system here is unacceptable.

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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at [email protected].