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Noah T. Carver lives and votes in Beals.
In 2025, many disabled citizens cannot exercise what is meant to be the right of all Americans: the right to vote. However, through thoughtful work, Maine leads the way, ensuring the votes of disabled Mainers are cast independently and securely.
Thanks to Disability Rights Maine and Maine’s secretary of state, I, a Blind man, receive an accessible computerized absentee ballot, vote privately and independently using screen reading software and a Braille display, then electronically return it. In this way, all Blind or DeafBlind Mainers have an equitable right to vote, and this fills me with tremendous pride. But this November, that could change, and Maine voters must stop it.
Under the guise of securing Maine’s elections, a citizen’s initiative on the ballot this November seeks to disenfranchise disabled, elderly and disadvantaged Mainers. Among its barriers, the initiative requires that voters present an approved form of photo identification to obtain their ballot. Requiring Voter ID is just one of its 25 provisions, and all of them either disenfranchise voters or add administrative burden for town clerks and election officials.
Most concerning among them, the initiative would unfairly require that disabled or elderly Mainers request absentee ballots at each election, shorten the period for early absentee voting by two days, disallow voters from requesting absentee ballots by phone, prohibit towns from including return postage on absentee ballots even if towns allocate the necessary funds, limit municipalities to one ballot drop box, and require that a two-person, nonpartisan team check ballots rather than a town clerk or staff.
I live on Beals Island. The nearest Bureau of Motor Vehicles branch office where one can obtain a state identification card is in Ellsworth, a three-hour round-trip journey. As Maine BMV offices are not open during weekends and I cannot drive due to my Blindness, I must take time off from work and also hire a driver or rely on friends or family who must do the same. Given that Maine is a rural state, this will be the experience of many disabled Mainers who cannot legally drive if they need to obtain an ID in order to vote.
The same will hold true for those who typically request an absentee ballot by phone, which would be banned under the referendum. These voters would need to take time off to request their ballot in-person during town office hours, which are often limited in small towns like ours. This effectively amounts to a poll tax which will undoubtedly deny access to many.
The Save Maine Absentee Voting Coalition projects that requiring already overtasked town clerks to find and train citizens to check ballot drop boxes means that towns will simply not offer them. Additionally, Mainers without access to transportation could no longer call their town clerk to request a ballot or designate a trusted individual to deliver it.
I cannot imagine my grandmother, a lifelong voter who was unable to drive in her later years, being told her daughter — my Mum — could no longer bring her ballot to her home and return it to the town office. This is an affront to Mainers’ integrity and common sense, yet these conversations would be common throughout Maine were this initiative adopted.
Further, while my hometown of Beals, population 500, would be largely unaffected by new ballot drop box requirements, the burden placed on citizens of Portland would be significant.
Mainers, the choice is clear. We all believe in election integrity, but this ballot question is not the answer. The number of verified prosecuted occurrences of voter fraud in Maine over the past quarter-century is minuscule. Why solve a nonexistent problem by making it difficult if not impossible for Mainers to perform their civic duty?
On behalf of the one in three Mainers who are disabled, please join me in voting no on this disastrous initiative.
