Two initiatives are circulating in Maine on election law topics. Maine Citizens for Clean Elections is virtually finished circulating an initiative that would (1) fully fund the public funding program; (2) require disclosure of top donors who make independent expenditures; (3) require disclosure of fundraising for transition and inaugural committees. This initiative has been circulating since May 2014. If it is submitted in January 2015, the vote on it will be on November 3, 2015.

The other initiative would establish ranked-choice voting for all federal and state offices except President. It has only been circulating for a month but seems likely to be finished in January 2015. However, if the sponsors choose not to submit the signatures that early, the initiative would be on the ballot in November 2016 instead of November 2015.

As previously noted, on November 10, a U.S. District Court struck down Nebraska’s county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. Here is an editorial from Omaha’s daily newspaper, which seems to approve of the decision, but which also advocates that the legislature require signatures from each of Nebraska’s three U.S. House districts.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, U.S. District Court Judge Cindy Jorgenson issued a 15-page ruling denying relief to Democratic Congressman Ron Barber. Barber and some voter plaintiffs had complained that certain provisional ballots had not been counted and should have been counted. See this story. The case is Barber v Bennett, 4:14cv-2489.

The fifteen page decision discusses Bush v Gore and finds that the case is properly in federal court. But it says, “Plaintiff’s allegation of irreparable harm is speculative at this juncture. Even if all 133 votes are counted, it is undisputed that Martha McSally wins the election because she leads by a margin of 161 votes at this time.” Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link to the ruling.