Maine’s referendum aiming to bar transgender girls from school sports is hinging on handfuls of signatures to remain on the November ballot after Wednesday testimony alleged fraud and other irregularities.
They included a circulator who may have been more focused on filming a Christmas parade than witnessing signatures, and a Kentucky woman who gathered signatures in Saco and acknowledged stepping away from her petitions for bathroom breaks and lunch.
Protect Girls’ Sports, the group behind the initiative, acknowledged some mistakes but said circulators honored their oaths and pushed back hard on what lawyer Timothy Woodcock called allegations of fraud raised by opponents in “a rather alarmingly casual manner.”
The dispute has put Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a progressive Democrat running to replace outgoing Gov. Janet Mills, in the unusual position of siding with a conservative referendum’s right to be on the ballot. This issue has been at the forefront of Maine politics since Mills had a White House confrontation with President Donald Trump over it last year.
The margin of valid signatures has dropped from more than 3,300 above the required threshold to a mere 300, Christopher Dodge, a lawyer representing three Maine residents seeking to invalidate the initiative. A Maine court last month tasked Bellows’ office with correcting concessions to the petitioners and reviewing more evidence in the case.
Bellows must determine the validity of the ballot measure by May 26. Dodge argued that once the secretary of state’s office considers more evidence, the measure will have fallen “far short of the required threshold.”
In testimony, Cynthia Graham of Auburn said during a Christmas parade, a circulator passed petition sheets into the crowd at least twice while looking away and filming the event. She estimated at least 50 people may have signed the petition during that time.
Multiple members of the Topsham Democratic Committee said they saw a circulator leave petition sheets unattended for about 30 to 40 minutes on Election Day. A witness said the circulator had complained earlier that morning about potentially not getting a lunch break.
The Oxford town clerk testified that she found multiple discrepancies with signatures, and one Maine resident said her name appeared on a petition for the measure even though she never signed it.
At a Saco polling location, Amy Stubbs, a Planned Parenthood organizer, testified she watched several people line up and appear to sign at the Protect Girls’ Sports table after a circulator had left for several minutes without anyone replacing them. One photo submitted as evidence showed a voter signing while a circulator was allegedly absent, with a Gatorade bottle sitting on the chair where the circulator had been.
Susan Mays, a Kentucky resident gathering signatures at that same table, testified she knew she could not leave petitions unattended and said whenever she stepped away for a bathroom break or lunch, she took most of the clipboards with her.
When she discovered someone had signed a blank petition left on the table during a break, she told the voter the signature was no good. Woodcock challenged whether Stubbs’ photo was taken from a wide-enough angle to prove a circulator was actually absent.
Dodge argued that multiple circulators “abandoned their petition sheets in violation of the secretary’s instructions and Maine law” and that some engaged in “obvious and transparent fraud,” submitting sheets with high rejection rates due to duplicative signatures, non-registered voters, or signatures made on behalf of others.
While Woodcock acknowledged some mistakes, he said circulators honored their oaths.
“To the best of my knowledge, I witnessed someone sign,” said Rokelle Harris, another Protect Girls’ Sports worker, when pressed on signatures that didn’t match voter records or appeared to be duplicates. “I always had eyes on my petition.”
