Maine holds a primary on June 12. Independent gubernatorial candidate Terry Hayes, like all independent candidates in Maine, is only on the ballot in November, not the June primary. Her campaign wants to have volunteers handing out campaign literature near the entrance to the polls on primary day. But the Secretary of State says she can’t do that within 250 feet of the entrance of any polling place.
On May 26, she sued the Secretary of State, asking for injunctive relief. Hayes v Department of the Secretary of State, Kennebec Superior Court, AP-18-26. Here is the 13-page complaint. The law says, “On election day, certain activities are restricted at polling places, as follows: Influence or attempting to influence another person’s decision regarding a candidate or question that is on the ballot for the election that day.”
Hayes’ brief says that her campaign is not attempting to influence any voter about whom to vote for in either the Republican or Democratic primaries, and that in any event many voters who come to the polls on primary day will be independent voters who are there only to vote on a ballot measure, and who can’t participate in the major party primaries.
ANOTHER REASON TO HAVE ALL MAIL SECRET BALLOTS —
OREGON SURVIVES WITH AMSB.
WHAT IS NEXT ???
BOTHERING THE VOTERS IN LINE WAITING TO VOTE INSIDE THE POLLING PLACES ???
You may recall that the SOS omnibus election bill would have reduced the electioneering limit to 50 feet. But this would have also restricted petitioners from accosting voters within the confines of the polling place. The controversy killed the entire bill.
When Angus King was running for governor in 1994, he was running television ads in Portland portraying the party candidates as being in it for party interests or as squabbling politicians. The Democratic nominee was Joseph Brennan who had been first been elected governor in 1978, served two terms, then been in Congress for two terms, losing in the gubernatorial election in 1990, and running again in 1990. He could be portrayed as a career politician. Susan Collins had won an 8-way Republican primary with 21% of the vote, had never held elective office, and had moved to Massachusetts two years earlier to work for the Massachusetts treasurer.
If Terry Hayes does not understand that he is competing with the Republicans and Democrats on the primary day, she is not getting competent political advice.