Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
Question 1 on the November ballot would require voter photo ID and change absentee ballot and dropbox rules. Voters in Maine read the entire description of this initiative, which is designed, it appears, to reduce the number of voters participating in elections by burdening us with new regulations for eligibility to vote. It supposedly makes our voting more secure, but actually puts greater challenges before voters who may not have the means to comply.
Requiring people who are unable to get a photo ID or drivers license will discourage and/or deny many people the ability to vote. Think about the homebound, those without access to a vehicle or even the money to buy the gas to travel to a Bureau of Motor Vehicles for a photo ID.
Our Constitution already gives us a system of checks and balances that ensure free and fair elections. The states and Congress have the power to regulate elections, with the courts complementing the system. The president and his cabinet have no power to interfere with voting! Yet, following the tenets of Project 2025, that is exactly what they are trying to do to our country. Changing the laws because they say so. Are we still in America?
The state of Maine has always held free and fair elections with incidences of voter fraud in the single numbers. This likely is not why this item is on our ballot.
And, while I’m at it, DOGE and the U.S. Department of Justice has no reason to access state voter files and other records kept by election officials. Hang in there Secretary of State Shenna Bellows!
Mary Gilman
Belfast
