Maine Bill for a Presidential Primary

Maine Senator Louis Luchini (D-Ellsworth) has introduced LD 245, to provide a presidential primary. Maine is one of the few states that has always used caucuses instead of presidential primaries.


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Maine Bill for a Presidential Primary — 4 Comments

  1. LD 114 requires petitions for partisan candidate to be signed by partisan enrollees. The bill should eliminate this requirement.

    Now that the Libertarian Party is a non-qualified party, an independent candidate can file as a “Libertarian” and gather signatures from anyone. But if their lawsuit succeeds, then it will be difficult for them to get a candidate on the ballot.

    A statewide candidate would require about 40% of enrolled Libertarians to sign it.Jim Riley Jim Riley

  2. Jim–the Maine party has filed to be re-recognized and has been granted permission to begin enrolling registrants again, which removes the ability of independents to self-identify as Libertarians for ballot purposes. They have to have 5000 by January 2nd of next year. Maine petitioning requirements were pretty rough this last cycle–with only 5300-5600 registrants and a 4000 signature requirement for statewide offices. Lower races weren’t much better. At those enrollment levels 40% of districts didn’t have enough registrants for state legislature seats. Three candidates made an earnest attempt at gathering state house signatures and only 1 was successful.

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