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laurie dobson
of kennebunkport, ME
No candidate should find themselves in the situation I was in, having to collect twice as many petitions(4,000) as other party candidates(2,000), with one quarter of the towns(fifty out of 200 tardy towns) not getting their jobs done on time(certifying the signatures and returning them to me), in order to meet the deadline for bringing them into the Secretary of State’s Office on June 2. Other states comply with HAVA (Help America Vote Act) and candidates and petitioners hand their papers over all at once to the SOS.
In Maine, you have to either hope the registrars will send them back on time or you have to go and get them. With over 200 towns and four business days to get them back, it was too much to ask of the registrars and for this independent candidate. I needed all the time I had to collect signatures and sent them to clerks as late as allowable, to meet the deadline on May 28, but election officials must still fulfill their own responsibility. We did get them back in within a week, by June 9, from all but ten towns who still have not returned our petitions. We contend that the State should permit these signatures returned late by the towns. In addition, our laws should comply with HAVA regulations so that candidates can bring and return petitions to one central location.
The responsibility for getting the petitions back from the towns should be on the Secretary of State, not on candidates who have no ability to enforce their returns. This is what HAVA calls for and Maine should not disqualify candidates because their election officials fail to meet their obligations under the law.report abuse
Jun 12, 2008 10:05 AM
A legal complaint has been raised by our campaign. It is important to the election process in Maine, because serious problems were uncovered. The Secretary of State’s office is in violation of the Federal Law on Elections, which require that electronic database should be functional in all towns. If it had been working, the towns wouldn’t have held up my valid signatures.
No candidate should find themselves in the situation I was in, having to collect twice as many petitions(4,000) as other party candidates(2,000), with one quarter of the towns(fifty out of 200 tardy towns) not getting their jobs done on time(certifying the signatures and returning them to me), in order to meet the deadline for bringing them into the Secretary of State’s Office on June 2. Other states comply with HAVA (Help America Vote Act) and candidates and petitioners hand their papers over all at once to the SOS.
In Maine, you have to either hope the registrars will send them back on time or you have to go and get them. With over 200 towns and four business days to get them back, it was too much to ask of the registrars and for this independent candidate. I needed all the time I had to collect signatures and sent them to clerks as late as allowable, to meet the deadline on May 28, but election officials must still fulfill their own responsibility. We did get them back in within a week, by June 9, from all but ten towns who still have not returned our petitions. We contend that the State should permit these signatures returned late by the towns. In addition, our laws should comply with HAVA regulations so that candidates can bring and return petitions to one central location.
The responsibility for getting the petitions back from the towns should be on the Secretary of State, not on candidates who have no ability to enforce their returns. This is what HAVA calls for and Maine should not disqualify candidates because their election officials fail to meet their obligations under the law.report abuse
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