Bangor may ask voters to approve changing an obscure city rule that likely violates their First Amendment rights.
The proposed change would alter Article VI, Section 3 of Bangor’s city charter, which limits how many candidate petitions residents can sign to the number of candidates that can be elected to office. A city charter is a document that lists local laws for a certain community.
For example, three city council seats are up for grabs this November. This means a resident can only sign up to three petitions for candidates looking to get on the city council ballot, even if more than three people are collecting signatures, according to David Szewczyk, Bangor’s city solicitor.
This can be especially limiting when several people are interested in running for a city council or school committee but only a few positions are open, as candidates must collect at least 100 resident signatures to get their name on the ballot.
“I think we live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else,” Councilor Dina Yacoubagha said. “It’s easy for candidates to have the same circle of friends and everyone wants to sign for everyone, but they’re limited.”
The rule is enforced when the city clerk counts and verifies the signatures on candidates’ petitions. If they find a resident has signed more petitions than positions available, those signatures would be discounted and a candidate would be told to collect more to get their name on the ballot, Szewczyk said.
The city’s legal department looked into the obscure rule following a “citizen inquiry” and determined that it likely violates the First Amendment, specifically, residents’ freedom of political speech. With that determination, the legal department recommended the limitation be removed, allowing people to sign any number of candidate petitions.
The Bangor City Council’s Government Operations Committee reviewed the recommendation and agreed to begin the lengthy process of changing the city charter.
First, the city will hold a public hearing on the proposed rule change, then councilors will vote whether to send the order to a referendum vote. If approved, city staff will put the proposed rule change on the ballot for the next election, which takes place in November.
Despite the quick turnaround, the rule change would go into effect after the November election. This means the signature limitation still applies to anyone gathering signatures looking to get on the Bangor city council ballot for the November election.
