On March 10, proponents of a Maine initiative to legalize marijuana filed a lawsuit over whether their initiative has enough valid signatures. The law requires 61,123 signatures. Proponents submitted 99,229. The Secretary of State determined that only 51,543 signatures are valid. If the Secretary is correct, the petition had a validity rate of only 51.9%, despite the fact that a very large proportion of Maine adult residents are registered to vote.

The lawsuit is Birks v Dunlap, Kennebec County Superior Court. It charges that the Secretary of State invalidated all the work of certain notaries public, on the grounds that he didn’t believe the signatures of the notaries on the petition are similar to the signatures on their voter registration forms. Ironically, some of the notarizes signed various petitions, and their signatures as voters were not invalidated. Here is the Complaint.

According to this story, a court in the U.S. Virgin Islands has restored the voter registration of John Yob. He had moved to the Virgin Islands so that he could seek election as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. Virgin Islands election officials had charged that he moved there too late to be a registered voter, but the court disagreed.

On March 8, the Vermont House unanimously passed HB 458. It provides that every adult citizen known to state agencies to be a Vermont resident will automatically be registered to vote. Such individuals will be notified that they have been placed on the rolls, and will then be given a chance to opt out. Vermont does not have registration by party, which makes this process simpler than in states that have registration by party.

The bill is sponsored by Representative Christopher Pearson (Progressive-Vermont). Thanks to Electionline for this news. The bill now goes to the Senate. The bill had been introduced an entire year ago.