AUGUSTA, Maine — Mainers are evenly split on whether to change the state flag back to something similar to the original pine tree design, according to the first public poll on the November referendum.
A new Pan Atlantic Research survey of 812 likely Maine voters found that 40 percent intend to vote yes in November on replacing Maine’s current flag featuring the state seal on a blue background with the original 1901 “lone pine” design featuring a tree and blue star on a buff background, while 40 percent indicated opposition to the switch.
The remaining 20 percent was undecided, according to the poll that found splits based on geography and party. In the more liberal 1st District covering southern Maine, 46 percent of respondents supported changing the state flag design, while only 32 percent of respondents in the more conservative and rural 2nd District said they would vote yes.
Forty-four percent of Democrats, 40 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of independents indicated they intend to vote yes on the state flag referendum, or Question 5, per the survey.
The Legislature voted to change the flag to the current state seal design in 1909 for reasons that have not been officially documented but that historians and vexillologists noted may have related to how many lawmakers were Civil War veterans who carried similar flags in battle.
Lawmakers intensely debated between last year and this year a flag design proposal from former state Rep. Sean Paulhus, D-Bath, that ultimately resulted in Maine voters receiving the chance to settle the issue during the Nov. 5 election.
Supporters of changing the design back to the original 1901 version have argued the current design is nearly identical to flags in 15 other states and that the pine tree design is more distinct, although the primarily Republican group of detractors noted that the state seal depicting a farmer and a fisherman properly nod to the state’s heritage.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, accepted more than 400 design submissions before announcing in August the winning design from a Gardiner architect that mostly mirrors the 1901 flag.
The question on ballots will read: “Do you favor making the former state flag, replaced as the official flag of the State in 1909 and commonly known as the Pine Tree Flag, the official flag of the State?”
