Maine Initiative Petition Deadlines Amendment, Question 2 (2006)

Maine Question 2, also known as the Initiative Petition Deadlines Amendment, was on the November 7, 2006 election ballot in Maine as a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment, where it was approved.

Question 2 amended the laws governing the initiative process in the Constitution of Maine so that the signatures for an indirect initiated state statute or People's Veto have to be submitted to election officials "by the constitutional deadline in order to be certified" and so that, for an indirect initiated state statute, the petition signatures must be filed with the Maine Secretary of State’s office within 18 months after the date the petition is approved for circulation.

Election results

Question 2
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		270,922	54.1%
No		229,749	45.9%

Text of measure

Maine Constitution
Articles
Preamble • I • II • III • IV-I • IV-II • IV-III • V-I • V-II • V-III • VI • VII • VIII-I • VIII-II • IX • X

Ballot question

The ballot question was:

	Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to state that a citizens' initiative or people's veto petition must be submitted to local or state officials by the constitutional deadline in order to be certified and, in the case of a citizens' initiative, must be filed with the Secretary of State within 18 months?"

"Intent and Content"

The "Intent and Content" statement prepared by the Attorney General of Maine said:

Intent and Content Prepared by the Office of the Attorney General This proposal would authorize an amendment to the Constitution of Maine to clearly establish certain time frames applicable to the direct citizens’ initiative and people’s veto referendum process. The first change contained in this amendment specifies that signed petitions for a direct initiative must be filed with the Secretary of State’s office within 18 months after the date the petition is approved by the Secretary for circulation. The second change clarifies that, to be valid, signatures on initiative petitions may not be older than one year at the time the petitions are filed with the Secretary of State. The one-year requirement exists in the Constitution now, but the amendment clarifies that the one-year period runs from the date the petition is filed with the Secretary. The amendment also provides that signatures on petitions for a direct initiative or people’s veto referendum must be submitted to local registrars (or state election officials, if authorized by law to perform certification) by the existing deadlines set forth in the Constitution, for a determination as to whether the signatures on the petitions are those of registered voters. Under this amendment, local and state officials would have no authority to make that determination with respect to any petition signatures after the deadlines currently specified in the Constitution, which are: 5:00 p.m. on the 5th day before the petition must be filed with the Secretary of State, for a people’s veto referendum, and 5:00 p.m. on the 10th day before the petition must be filed with the Secretary of State for a direct initiative.

Fiscal impact statement

The fiscal impact statement prepared by the Office of Fiscal and Program Review said:

	Passage of this constitutional amendment will not affect state and local expenditures.

See also

• List of amendments to the Maine Constitution
• List of Maine ballot measures
• 2006 ballot measures
• Maine 2006 ballot measures
• Maine State Senate
• Maine House of Representatives

Suggest a link

External links

• Guide to the Maine 2006 ballot questions
• Election results, 2006 Maine ballot measures
• Maine constitutional amendments

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