Laws governing ballot measures in Maine

Laws governing ballot measures
State
• Laws governing state initiative processes
• Laws governing state recall processes
• Changes to ballot measure law in 2025
• Difficulty analysis of changes to laws governing ballot measures
• Analysis of 2025 changes to laws governing ballot measures
Local
• Laws governing local ballot measures
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This page provides an overview of resources addressing the laws and procedures that govern statewide and local ballot measures in Maine, including the initiative and referendum process, constitutional amendments, signature requirements, recall procedures, and campaign finance regulations.

Explore the links below for more information:

• Types of ballot measures in Maine
• Laws governing the initiative process in Maine
• Amending the Maine Constitution
• Laws governing local ballot measures in Maine
• Signature requirements for ballot measures in Maine
• Laws governing recall in Maine
• Laws governing state constitutional conventions in Maine
• Campaign finance requirements for Maine ballot measures
• Changes to laws governing ballot measures in Maine

Laws governing ballot measures in Maine

Types of ballot measures in Maine

• Maine has two types of citizen-initiated ballot measures: indirect initiated state statutes and veto referendums.

• In Maine, the legislature can refer constitutional amendments, state statutes, and bond measures.

Laws governing the initiative process in Maine

• In Maine, citizens have the power to indirectly initiate state statutes as well as the power to repeal legislation through veto referendums.

• Maine adopted the initiative and referendum process in 1908, with voter approval of a ballot measure.

Amending the Maine Constitution

• Maine became a state in 1820. The first and current state constitution was ratified in 1820.

• The Maine Constitution can be amended in two ways:
  • Legislatively referred constitutional amendment: A two-thirds majority vote is required during one legislative session for the Maine State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
  • Convention-referred constitutional amendment: A state constitutional convention can vote to refer constitutional changes to the ballot.

Laws governing local ballot measures in Maine

• Maine Constitution, Article IV, Part Third, Sec. 21 grants authority for cities to adopt an initiative and referendum process for ordinances.

• Charter cities have the authority to adopt an initiative process for ordinances.

• City and town charters may be amended through a mandated initiative process

Signature requirements for ballot measures in Maine

• In Maine, the number of signatures required for ballot initiatives is tied to the number of votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election.
• Both initiated state statutes and veto referendums require a number of signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast for governor.
• The deadline for submitting signatures to get an initiative on the ballot depends on the year the initiative is submitted.
  • For initiatives intended for the election in November of an odd-numbered year, signatures must be submitted within 50 days after the convening of the state legislature's first legislative session.
  • For initiatives intended for the election in November of an even-numbered year, signatures must be submitted within 25 days after the convening of the state legislature's second legislative session.
• Proponents are allowed to gather signatures for veto referendums for 90 days after the adjournment of the legislative session at which the targeted law was passed.

Laws governing recall in Maine

• Maine allows for the recall of officials in some local jurisdictions.

• No specific grounds are required for recall in Maine. The recall of local officials in Maine is governed by local charters. Because of this, recall laws regarding signature requirements and circulation time vary by locality.

Laws governing state constitutional conventions in Maine

• According to Section 15 of Part III of Article IV of the Maine Constitution, the legislature can, by a two-thirds concurrent vote of both branches, call a constitutional convention. However, the constitution says nothing about convention rules.

Campaign finance requirements for Maine ballot measures

• A political action committee must register with the state ethics commission within seven days of exceeding $1,500 in contributions or expenditures. This registration form must be accompanied by an initial campaign finance report. Ballot question committees must meet the same filing requirements, though the threshold is raised to $5,000.

Changes to laws governing ballot measures in Maine

See also: Changes to laws governing ballot measures

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

See also: Changes in 2025 to laws governing ballot measures

• Legislative Document 1635: The legislation permitted municipal officers to initiate a recount for a local ballot measure if the margin of victory or defeat is less than 1% of all votes cast, including any blank ballots, without requiring a voter petition.
  

Note: No roll-calls were recorded on LD 1635.

See also: Changes in 2024 to laws governing ballot measures

The Maine State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2024.

See also: Changes in 2023 to laws governing ballot measures

• Legislative Document 233: The legislation provided that the Secretary of State in Maine is given 30 business days, instead of just 30 days, to verify the signatures on an initiative petition. Additionally, if petitions are submitted within 30 days before or after an even-numbered general election, the secretary of state has until 30 business days after the 30th calendar day following the general election to complete the verification process.

• Legislative Document 764: This legislation changed the effective date for indirect initiated state statutes passed during the First Special Session of the 131st Legislature from 90 days post-adjournment to after the election in November 2023. The Legislature passed one indirect initiative, the Prohibit Foreign Spending in Elections Initiative, but Gov. Mills vetoed the initiative.

• Legislative Document 1012 (Question 5): The constitutional amendment required voter approval on November 7, 2023. LD 1022 was designed to change the timeline for the judicial review of initiative petitions, including changing the judicial review period from within 100 days of a petition being filed to within 100 business days from the deadline for filing a petition and allowing the judicial review period to begin 30 days after a general election when an initiative petition is filed within 30 days of a general election.

• Legislative Document 1022: The bill extended the time frame for holding the budget validation referendum after the regional school unit budget meeting from 30 days to 45 days.

• Legislative Document 1336: The legislation addressed campaign finance for local ballot measures. Under LD 1336, organizations that spend more than $5,000 to influence the outcome of a municipal referendum campaign in towns or cities of less than 15,000 people must register as ballot measure committees and file campaign finance reports.

• Legislative Document 1477 (Question 7): The constitutional amendment required voter approval on November 7, 2023. LD 1477 was designed to repeal language requiring that petition circulators be residents of Maine. In 2022, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the requirement violated the U.S. Constitution and enjoined the state from enforcing the requirement.

See also: Changes in 2022 to laws governing ballot measures

• Legislative Document 1754: In Maine, a major contributor must file a major contributor report. A major contributor is defined as an organization that contributes $100,000 or more to a PAC or ballot measure committee to influence a ballot question outcome. One of the requirements is to report the five largest sources of funds received by the major contributor during the six months prior to making the first contribution. LD 1754 provided major contributors with the ability to ask for a waiver upon a sworn statement explaining the circumstances preventing a timely or complete report. Under LD 1754, The Maine Ethics Commission decides whether to grant a waiver or not.

• Legislative Document 1830: The legislation made changes to the state's election policies, including but not limited to ballot initiatives. LD 1830 provided that the Maine secretary of state must propose a ballot question for an indirect initiative after signatures are verified, rather than at the end of the legislative session. The bill also provided procedures that a voter can use to challenge the ballot question, starting the process in the Maine Superior Court, which must issue an opinion no later than 60 days before the election, with an option to further appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which must issue an opinion no later than 50 days before the election. LD 1830 also provided that the fiscal impact statement for an initiative petition must be printed on the first page of a petition, rather than on each page.

See also: Changes in 2021 to laws governing ballot measures

• Legislative Document 194 (Vetoed): The legislation would have prohibited contributions and expenditures to influence ballot measures from entities with 10% or more ownership by foreign governments. On June 23, 2021, Gov. Janet Mills (D) vetoed LB 194.

• Legislative Document 1485: The bill amended state law governing political action committees and ballot question committees. LD 1485 defined ballot question committee as a person or organization that receives or expends more than $5,000 to initiate a ballot measure or influence the outcome of a ballot measure.

• Legislative Document 1536: LD 1536 provided that municipal public hearings on local citizen-initiated ballot measures must "be held in a manner that solicits and allows for a discussion on the merits of the article."

See also: Changes in 2020 to laws governing ballot measures

The Maine State Legislature did not pass legislation concerning ballot measures in 2020.

See also: Changes in 2019 to laws governing ballot measures

• Legislative Document 53: The legislation required the use of letters of the alphabet instead of numbers to list municipal initiative and referendum questions on ballots.

• Legislative Document 499: The legislation required signature gatherers to provide certain personal information and proof of voter registration with the state and file an affidavit that says the circulator has an understanding of the initiative process. The legislation also required organizations or individuals paying circulators to provide a list of paid circulators and details on payment methods, including whether pay-per-signature is utilized.

• Legislative Document 534: The legislation provided that the secretary of state's office must write ballot questions "as simply as is possible," provide explanations of the effects of "yes" and "no" votes, and eliminated the rule that required a "yes" vote on a veto referendum to mean repealing the targeted legislation.

• Legislative Document 1209: The legislation required that an indirect initiated state statute that received enough valid signatures to receive a public hearing before a joint standing committee of the Legislature or a special legislative committee of the Legislative Council.

• Legislative Document 1437 (Question 2): Voters approved the constitutional amendment on November 5, 2019. The constitutional amendment allowed for persons with physical disabilities that prevent them from signing their own names to use an alternative signature to sign petitions for citizen-initiated ballot measures.

See also: Changes in 2018 to laws governing ballot measures

• Legislative Document 1840: The legislation required a ballot question to form a joint charter commission to draft a consolidation agreement between municipalities after enough signatures are collected. Gov. Paul LePage (R) vetoed LD 1840 but the Legislature overrode his veto and enacted the bill.

• Legislative Document 1865: The legislation was designed to address ballot measure notaries and campaign finance, including:

• providing that notaries or other persons authorized to administer oaths or affirmations cannot administer an oath or affirmation to a petition circulator when that person is providing other services to the initiative campaign or to promote the initiative;
• requiring major contributors, defined as contributors who donate $100,000 or more, to file reports providing certain financial information, including the contributor's five largest sources of funds during the six months prior; and
• requiring major contributors to file reports containing information on each contribution within five days or, during the last 13 days before the election, within 24 hours.

See also

• Laws governing ballot measures

Footnotes

Laws governing ballot measures in the United States

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Changes to laws governing ballot measures

Types of ballot measures

Citizen-initiated ballot measures • Legislatively referred ballot measures • Automatically referred ballot measures • Commission-referred ballot measures • Convention-referred constitutional amendments

Ballot measure policy terms

Glossary of ballot measure policy terms