In downtown Portland, as hundreds of Mainers gathered for an anti-ICE protest Saturday, others were there to gather signatures for a petition to repeal recreational marijuana in Maine.
Though, they didn’t present it as such. It’s about the testing of cannabis, one petitioner said.
Misrepresentation of this citizen initiative by signature-gatherers has been documented across the state over the last few days. On Monday, state legislators asked the overseer of elections, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, what could be done about it.
“Petitioners have a First Amendment right to say whatever they want to say,” Bellows said during a meeting of the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee.
Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Kennebec, committee co-chair, chimed in, “You have a right to lie under the First Amendment.”
Maine has a citizen-initiated referendum process that allows average people to propose statutes or constitutional amendments to be put on the ballot if they gather enough signatures. Bellows doesn’t have the authority to take any enforcement action over the truth of what is being said about such petitions, only about the validity of what’s in the text, underscoring the legal limits to combatting misinformation.
“We really encourage citizens to think about what you’re signing, why you’re signing it, and what it means, and to take the time to read the legislation,” Bellows said.
In 2016, Maine voters legalized the recreational use of cannabis. The proposed ballot referendum would do away with the commercial cultivation, sale, purchase and manufacture of cannabis starting in 2028, while still allowing personal use and possession of up to 2.5 ounces. It would also create new testing and tracking requirements on medical cannabis, which the industry has resisted in recent years.
It is not uncommon for someone to sign a petition thinking it is about something else.
In 2024, for example, a person collecting signatures to try to get an independent candidate on the presidential ballot in Maine instead told people who ended up signing the petition that it was an effort to stop politicians from being able to trade stocks. The signees only later found out the true contents of what they’d signed when a law firm representing others who fell victim to the deceptive practices contacted them.
This issue is also not unique to Maine.
Nearby Massachusetts has a similar referendum effort underway to recriminalize cannabis in that state, and witnesses there have also accused signature-gatherers of misleading people, such as saying the effort was for affordable housing, reducing impaired driving or protecting youth from being jailed for cannabis.
The Massachusetts secretary of state and attorney general office’s issued a joint advisory urging voters to read petitions carefully before signing and to contact local officials if they believe they were deceived.
Maine’s secretary of state’s office relies on the signature validation process to identify potential violations.
For example, the petition paperwork available to signees must include a copy of the actual statutory changes that would be made to the law should the referendum pass.
Petitions also can’t be left unattended at a location, such as a campaign placing one by the door of an event and encouraging people to sign it on their way out. Only one person can circulate a given petition and that person has to personally witness each signature, taking an oath before a notary to as much.
Expressing frustration with a few bad actors spoiling the referendum process for others, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jill Duson, D-Cumberland, suggested creating a process to file complaints, though limited department resources and time would present challenges for that to work in practice.
Absent enforcement authority, Bellows said she would tell the petition organizers that her department has received a significant number of complaints over the last several days about the activities of their circulators.
Ultimately, as Hickman put it, when it comes to regulating this type of malfeasance: “It’s a gentleman’s agreement. It’s an honor system. People have to act as if they’re going to respect the letter of the law. There are bad actors, and there are outlaws, and there are people that are just going to do what they’re going to do, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.”
This story was originally published on MaineMorningStar.com.
