Both houses of the Maine legislature have given preliminary approval to LD 1673. The Senate passed it April 11 and the House on April 12. It sets up a presidential primary for Maine. The date would be set by the Secretary of State, but the primary would be on one of the Tuesdays in March. The Secretary of State would set the date by December of the year before the election.
Candidates would need 2,000 signatures. Only party members could vote in the presidential primaries. The bill also says the Secretary of State shall study how much the primaries would cost and report by December 1, 2017. If the Maine legislature wants to save money, it should provide for filing fees instead of signatures, because it costs tax dollars to check petition validity. Or the Maine legislature could have provided that candidates discussed in the news media be placed on the ballot automatically. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the news.
The initial bill did allow for the SoS to add candidates. One correction, the bill says that 2000 to 3000 voters may sign the petition. It does not say party members.
thank you.
Upon further reading the bill, I think only party members could sign. Although the bill doesn’t mention this issue, the bill builds onto existing law relating to primary petitions. The law already says only party members may sign, and this bill leaves that general language intact.