November to Remember: Maine ballot questions highlight constitutional rulings and state infighting

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : "Question 6Voters will decide on whether to amend the state constitution to require all provisions of the constitution to be included in the printed copies of the document.
55% : The secretary of state said despite her personal feelings, she believes the constitution "as our source document should be accurate."
54% : ""Our perspective on that is that we want Maine citizens to be able to review the constitution and understand all of their rights and responsibilities and all of the contents of the constitution," the secretary of state said.
53% : It would simply let election officials concentrate on major elections for governor or for president," state Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
52% : The secretary of state said staff worked weekends and Veterans Day and canceled Thanksgiving vacation plans to verify signatures.
50% : Following appeals, the courts agreed that denying a Mainer in this scenario the right to vote violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINERBellows said she found the language discriminatory and agreed with the courts' ruling.
48% : "Question 7Question 7's inception dates back to an old law that prohibited out-of-state petition circulators from collecting signatures.
48% : A district judge in We The People PAC v. Bellows in 2022, as well as a court of appeals, sided in Faulkingham's favor, ruling that out-of-state circulators have the right to come into Maine and petition people under the First Amendment, so the state law was unconstitutional.
48% : "I really think that petitions that are going to change the law should be circulated and signed by Maine voters and Maine citizens.
46% : However, the rules are vague on the issue of foreign electioneering in state referendums.
46% : "Question 8Question 8 also stems from a court case in 2020 in which three Maine women who were under guardianship for mental illness could not vote in that year's presidential election under state law.
39% : Many groups found a loophole, he said, by having a local Maine resident witness the signatures while out-of-state petitioners collected them.
35% : Democratic state Rep. David Boyer, one of the co-sponsors for Question 7, said no one had ever "cared enough" to bring a lawsuit to change the law.
33% : However, campaigns began to notice they would need to pay Mainers more per signature than out-of-state circulators, so a group led by state Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham challenged the law.

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