State officials have dropped an investigation of the illegal anonymous mailers that urged voters in the midcoast town of St. George to reject the proposed donation of town land for a new housing development.
The Maine ethics commission voted 4-0 last week not to continue with the investigation, after staff were unable to determine who circulated the mailers. A commission staffer said that it was an unusual outcome, given that responsible parties can usually be identified.
“We suspect it was organized by one person or a small group who wanted to proceed anonymously, regardless of their knowledge of legal requirements. This is the first case within memory in which we could not find the responsible parties,” Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the commission, said in his report.
If passed, it would have transferred 18 acres of town land to a nonprofit organization that would have developed up to seven new homes on it in an effort to ease the region’s housing crisis.
The flyers, which urged a “no” vote on the measure, did not give any information as to who may have paid for or mailed them. It was the second recorded violation of a new law that requires people and groups who pay to influence ballot questions in small towns to disclose their names and addresses.
Over the summer, Rep. Ann Matlack, a Democrat from St. George, had requested that the Maine ethics commission investigate whether the mailers should have stated who paid for them, and whether the sender should have filed information with the state.
Matlack had argued the misleading information on the card could not be rebutted because the flyers were delivered three days before the election, and because there was no way to contact the people who sent it.
In his investigation, Wayne interviewed 14 witnesses and also watched a public hearing that was held about the local ballot measure, but he ultimately couldn’t determine who paid for and distributed the mailers, he said in a report to the commissioners.
According to his report, Wayne interviewed Matlack, St. George officials, four local print shops and others. While the witnesses confirmed there was opposition to the measure, they couldn’t pinpoint who may have sent the mailers, and the print shops confirmed that they did not print them.
