AUGUSTA — Supporters of a ballot question to impose restrictions on transgender sports participation and bathroom access failed to gather enough valid signatures for a November vote, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Tuesday.
The decision follows a recommendation issued last week by Bellows’ office that Protect Girls Sports in Maine failed to reach the required 67,682 signatures to put a question on the fall ballot.
After an investigation, Bellows’ office now says the group fell 532 signatures short of the required number.
“A failure to follow the law by at least two circulators demonstrated there were insufficient signatures to qualify the petition for the November ballot,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
Protect Girls Sports is expected to appeal the decision.
Bellows issued a decision in March that found that the group had gathered enough valid signatures.
But an appeal filed in Superior Court challenged her decision. A judge sent the matter back to Bellows’ office to investigate claims that signature gathers left petitions unattended and in some cases, signed voters’ names without their knowledge.
During a hearing, witnesses from several towns testified that they watched signature collectors leave their petition forms unattended for several minutes or longer. State law requires signatures to be witnessed.
Oxford Town Clerk Kathleen Dillingham testified that she received a complaint from one voter and followed up with two others to discover that they did not sign the petition even though their names appeared.
After an investigating, the Secretary of State’s Office determined that 61 signatures submitted by that circulator should have been thrown out.
More than 2,800 were invalidated because the circulator did not file a valid circulator’s affidavit when the petitions were filed, according to the recommended decision.
And 5,066 are invalid because they did not belong to a registered voter in that municipality, along with 1,930 that were duplicates.
The initiative requires schools to designate all sports teams as male, female or co-ed. It defines sex as a person’s status at birth. It requires public schools to maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms for girls and boys.
This story will be updated.
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