Maine's Left-Wing Secretary of State Deceptively Words Voter ID Amendment
An effort to require photo ID to vote in Maine gained overwhelming grassroots support. Now Maine's Democrat Secretary of State wants to kill it.
The group behind a successful initiative to bring photo ID requirements to Maine elections is suing the state's Secretary of State over an attempt to confuse voters and dissuade them from voting for it.
As Restoration News previously covered, The Dinner Table, a conservative Maine grassroots group, submitted over 100,000 more signatures than needed for a citizen-led election integrity bill. In addition to requiring photo ID to vote, it disallows absentee ballot applications by phone, ends the automatic mailing of absentee ballots without requests, and limits drop boxes to one per municipality.
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Secretary of State Steps In
Per Maine law, once the Secretary of State verifies the required signatures, the state legislature may vote on a petition as written. If it doesn't act, the Secretary of State orders the measure to be submitted to the people as a referendum.
In crafting the referendum's wording, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows inserted her own bias, using inflammatory language clearly meant to convince voters of the Far Left's viewpoint that election integrity laws aim to disenfranchise vulnerable populations.
She also buried the photo ID aspect of the bill at the bottom of the text. This serves as an obvious tactical choice, as poll after poll shows even large majorities of Democrats support requiring photo ID to vote.
Bellows infamously tried to remove President Donald Trump's name from Maine's ballot because of the Jan. 6 riot, based on the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause. Even the three liberal Supreme Court Justices voted to overturn her interpretation.
Without knowing better, one would think her wording of the referendum were satire.
Do you want to change Maine election laws to eliminate two days of absentee voting, prohibit requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limit the number of drop boxes, require voters to show certain photo ID before voting, and make other changes to our elections?
The Dinner Table's complaint against Bellows in Cumberland County Superior Court, states, "The Secretary's question is misleading, complicated, and confusing, and therefore violates Maine law for several reasons." It notes the question falsely claims the bill's provisions would target "seniors and people with disabilities," whereas they would affect all Maine voters. It adds that the question is not "simple, clear, concise, and direct" as required by Maine law; instead using vague terminology and uses technical language "likely to be misunderstood by the average voter."
“Maine voters deserve a clear, honest question—not a partisan editorial from an official who’s already made her opposition clear in the press and in legislative testimony,” The Dinner Table co-founder Alex Titcomb said in a statement.
In 2021, for instance, Bellows told a committee of the Maine legislature that photo ID laws are "rooted in white supremacy." She changed her tune after the petition's success, claiming the 171,000 signers were tricked, calling the petition a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” because of the minor absentee voter and ballot drop changes—which were all there for voters to read when they signed.
So, when she crafted the referendum, she deliberately put those secondary tweaks front and center and buried the purpose described in the act's title.
"This is the longest ballot question on record," Titcomb told Restoration News by email, "and I believe it was craftily written to influence folks to vote against the commonsense legislation."
Cynical Political Considerations
On March 26, Bellows became the first Democrat to declare her candidacy for Maine governor in 2026. Her marching in lockstep with the Far Left on election integrity laws undoubtedly plays into her strategy to garner the lion's share of Far-Left donor dollars. Although rank-and-file voters support photo ID requirements to vote, their pockets aren't as deep as leftist mega donors who can make or break a Democrat candidate in blue and purple state primaries.
In crafting the ballot question for Maine’s voter ID referendum, Bellows skewed the text to inflame voters against a measure on which her party's leadership is out of touch even with its own voters. By burying the popular photo ID requirement at the end of a biased screed, encased in convoluted legalese, she's attempting to frame a wildly popular measure in the language of the Far Left. This deliberate misrepresentation undermines the will of the 171,000 Maine voters who signed the petition and shows a transparent attempt to sabotage election integrity by undermining the entire referendum process.
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