Maine Official Removes Transgender Athlete Ballot Measure Over Thousands of Invalid Signatures
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 27
Maine Official Removes Transgender Athlete Ballot Measure Over Thousands of Invalid Signatures
9 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 27
Shenna Bellows on Tuesday pulled a transgender-athlete ballot question from Maine’s November ballot after finding thousands of petition signatures were invalid.
Her written decision said multiple signature gatherers broke petition rules, including submitting names from voters who later said they never signed and falsely swearing they had witnessed every signature.
The proposal from Protect Girls Sports in Maine would have limited girls’ teams, locker rooms, showers and bathrooms to students whose sex at birth was female.
Backers now have 10 days to appeal in Superior Court, which could uphold Bellows’s ruling, restore the question to the ballot or order further review.
The fight lands in a state where transgender girls are currently allowed on girls’ sports teams under Maine’s nondiscrimination law.
With the ballot question blocked, what's the next move in Maine's debate over student sports?
How will Maine's invalidated petition impact similar athlete eligibility campaigns across the nation?
Does this case of petition fraud reveal deeper flaws in citizen-led ballot initiative systems?