On June 8 the Maine Senate tentatively passed LD 742, and on June 9 the Maine House also passed it. It asks the voters if they wish to amend the State Constitution, to require that initiative petitions obtain the signatures of voters in each of the two U.S. House districts. Maine initiatives need the signatures of 10% of the last gubernatorial vote. The bill would ask the voters to change this to 10% in each of the two districts.
As originally introduced, the bill would have required signatures from each county, but that was scrapped because it violates the U.S. Supreme Court precedent Moore v Ogilvie. Statewide petitions cannot have distribution requirements based on counties, because counties are unequal in population. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for this news.
This bill, in effect, increases the signature requirement from 10% of the last gubernatorial vote to 10% in both districts. In Maine, the 1st congressional district is significantly smaller and more urban than the 2nd congressional district. The likely effect of this amendment would be that signature gatherers would need to spend more time in the few urban areas of the 2nd district, specifically Bangor and Lewiston.