An Act To Create Freedom of Citizen Information Regarding Ballot Questions and Political Action Committees
Maine Legislature, Session 122, LD 0929
Committee: Legal and Veterans Affairs
Sponsors: FAIRCLOTH, GAGNON, PATRICK
Amends: 21-A MRSA §901-A, 21-A MRSA §1052, 21-A MRSA §1056-B

Legislative Document 
No. 929 
H.P.648 
House of Representatives, February 22, 2005 
An Act To Create Freedom of Citizen Information Regarding Ballot 
Questions and Political Action Committees 
Reference to the Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative FAIRCLOTH of Bangor. 
Cosponsored by Senator GAGNON of Kennebec and 
Representative: PATRICK of Rumford. 
Printed on recycled paper 
If/~frl.~~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. I. 21-A MRSA §901-A is enacted to read: 
§901-A. 
Peti-.t..iolL.X'.e_qyirem~ts for direct initiatives of 
legislation 
The 
following provisions 
9~1y 
legislation under the Constitution of 
Third, Section 18. 
to direct initiatives of 
Maine, Article IV, 
Part 
1. 
PrQPQ~gd b~~~p_t~~~~tiQ~~Yrnmary. 
The 
Secret~Q~ 
State in conjunction with the Revisor of Statutes shall draft a 
proposed ballot g;uestion summary that is neutral and accurately 
summarizes the proposed law in a concise manner similar in form 
to legislative bill summaries. 
The Secretary of State shall 
provide the summary to the applicant when the approved form of 
the petition is provided to the applicant and make the summary 
easily accessible to the public by way of a publicly accessible 
site on the Internet. 
2. 
Freedom of citizen information. 
The proposed ballot 
5;Lyestion swnroary must incll.lde the following statement completed 
and prominently displayed at the beginning of the summary: 
"PROPOSED BALLOT QUESTION SUMMARY 
Ballot 
g;uestions 
during 
the 
.. 
election 
[most 
recent 
election cycle 1 cost taxpayers approximately $........ [an 
estimate shall be provided by the Office of Fiscal 
and 
Program Review] 
each to be placed on the ballot. 
As 
a 
citizen of Maine, you have a right to decide whether placing 
a g;uestion on the ballot is sensible or not. 
Registered 
voters must be offered the opportunity to read a proposed 
ballot g;uestion summary as drafted by the Secretary of State 
before signing any petition. 
You, the registered voter, may 
choose not to read the summary and still sign the 'petition." 
A person circulating a petition must provide the voter with the 
proposed ballot g;uestion summary to read and keep prior to that 
voter signing the petition. 
The summary presented to the voter 
must be as it appears on the publicly accessible site on the 
Internet established 
by 
the 
Secretary of 
State pursuant 
to 
subsection 1. 
3. 
Form of petition. 
When determining the 
petition to be submitted to voters as provided under 
the Secretary of State shall design the petition 
following reg;uirements. 
Page l-LR0307(1) 
form 
of the 
section 901, 
to meet the 
A. 
The Pl'ltition must be 
divid~nto 2 columns per page. 
One column must be entitled "Read and Signed." This column 
is for voters who have read the proposed ballot question 
summary to Usn. 
The 2nd column must be entitled "Not Read 
and Signed." 
This column is for voters who have chosen not 
to read the 
summary 
to sign. 
Persons 
who 
are visually 
impaired or otherwise unable to read the summary may have 
the summary read to them and may then sign under the column 
entitled "Read and Signed." 
B. 
The petition must have the following statement printed 
at the top of the petition in a font of no less than 18 
point: 
"Freedom of Ci_tizen 
Inf~rm~tion: Before a registered voter 
signs any ballot question petition, signature gatherers must 
offer registered voters the opportunity to read the proposed 
ballot question summary prepared by the Secretary of State." 
C. 
The 
petition must 
provide 
a 
place 
for 
the 
person 
circulating 
the 
petition 
to 
sign 
certifying 
that 
the 
petition 
circ~lator offered each 
person 
who 
signed 
the 
petition an opportunity to read the proposed ballot question 
summary. 
4. 
Violation. 
A person 
may 
not 
knowingly 
circulate 
a 
petition and falsely certify that a signer of the petition was 
offered 
an 
opportunity to 
read the 
proposed ballot question 
summary. 
5. Penal ties. 
The following penalties apply to violations 
of subsection 4: 
A. 
A person who violates subsection 4 involving 2 or fewer 
persons commits a Class E crime: 
~---.lL--P-~~;;o~who _y.iolqke~~1Jhection 4 involving 3 to 9 
persons commits a Class D crime: or 
C. 
A person who violates subsection 4 involving 20 or more 
persons commits a Class C crime. 
6. 
Placement and notice. 
If a 
person is circulating a 
peti tion wi thin 250 feet of a polling place that person must 
display a sign that reads "Not a Polling Place." 
The sign must 
pe large enough to be easily read at 100 feet and may not contain 
any other text or images. 
A person circulating a petition may 
display another sign 
in,diGi;L~Ln<L-t.t~g.llot question. 
If the 
person circulating a petition is paid, that person must wear in 
plain view a button that is no less than 3 inches in diameter 
that clearly states "Paid Signature Gatherer" and upon request 
must provide the name of the person or organization paying that 
person to collect signatures. 
1. 
Fin~cial filing 
regqi~groent~. 
During the period of 
signature 
gathering 
of 
a 
direct 
initiative 
of 
legislation 
campaign, the person or organ~zation conducting the campaign must 
file 
a 
report that conforms to the requirements provided in 
section 1056-B, subsection 2 with the Secretary of State. 
The 
Secretary of State sh911 adopt rUles for the reporting frequency 
of reports during this period. 
Rules adopted pursuant to this 
subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, 
chapter 375, subchapter 2-A. 
Sec. 2. 21-A MRSA §1052, sub·§5, ~A, as amended by PL 1999, c. 
729, §6, is further amended to read: 
A. 
Includes: 
(1) 
Any separate or segregated fund established by any 
corporation, 
membership 
organization, 
cooperative 
or 
labor organization whose purpose is to influence the 
outcome 
of 
an 
election, 
including 
a 
candidate 
or 
question; 
a funding and transfer 
to 
initiate, 
advance, 
in any way a candidate, 
(2) 
Any person who serves as 
mechanism 
and 
spends 
money 
promote, defeat or influence 
campaign, 
political 
party, 
petition in this State; 
referendum 
or 
initiated 
(3) 
Any 
organization, 
including any corporation or 
association, that has as its major purpose advocating 
the passage or defeat of a ballot question and that 
makes 
expenditures other than by contribution to 
a 
political action committee, 
for 
the purpose of the 
initiation, promotion or defeat of any question; and 
(4) 
Any organization, 
including any corporation or 
association, that has as its major purpose advocating 
the passage or defeat of a ballot question and that 
solicits funds 
from members or nonmembers and spends 
more than $;h§QQ jl25Q in a calendar year to initiate, 
advance, 
promote, 
defeat or influence in any way 
a 
candidate, 
campaign, 
political party, 
referendum 
or 
initiated petition in this State; and 
Sec. 3. 21·A MRSA § 1053, first~, as amended by PL 1999, 
c . 
729, §7, is further amended to read: 
Every political action committee that accepts contributions, 
incurs obligations or makes expenditures in the aggregate in 
excess of $±TSGG $250 in any single calendar year to initiate, 
support, defeat or influence in any way a campaign, referendum, 
initiated petition, 
candidate, 
political committee or another 
political action committee must register with the commission, 
wi thin 7 days of accepting those contributions, incurring those 
obligations or making those expenditures, on forms prescribed by 
the 
commission. 
These 
forms 
must 
include 
the 
following 
information and any additional information reasonably required by 
the 
commission to monitor the activities of political action 
committees in this State under this subchapter: 
Sec. 4. 21-A MRSA §1056-B, first" as enacted by PL 1999, c. 
729, §8, is amended to read: 
Aay 
A person not defined 
as 
a 
political committee 
who 
solicits and receives contributions or makes expenditures, other 
than by contribution to a political action committee, aggregating 
ln 
excess 
of 
$±TSGG 
$250 
for 
the 
purpose 
of 
initiating, 
promoting, defeating or influencing in any way a ballot question 
must file 
a 
report with the 
commission. 
Such 
a 
person who 
expends or raises an amount in the aggregate that exceeds $10,000 
during a campaign shall file both an electronic copy and a hard 
copy of the required report with the commissioner. 
In the case 
of a municipal election, a copy of the same information must be 
filed with the clerk of that municipality. 
Sec. 5. 21-A MRSA §l059, sub-§2, ,C-l is enacted to read: 
C-1. 
In 
addition 
to 
the 
requirements 
of 
paragraph 
C, 
reports 
of 
spending 
to 
influence direct initiatives 
of 
legislation must be filed during the period of signature 
gathering of the initiative as the Secretary of State shall 
provide by rule. 
Rules adopted under this paragraph are 
routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, 
subchapter 2-A. 
Sec. 6. 21-A MRSA §l059. sub-§2, ,D, as repealed and replaced 
by PL 1991, c. 839, §29, is amended to read: 
D. 
A 
committee 
that 
files 
an 
election 
report 
under 
paragraph B 9FL 
C or C-1 is not required to file a quarterly 
report when the deadline for that quarterly report falls 
within 
days 
of 
the 
filing 
deadline 
established 
in 
paragraph B 9FL 
C or C-l. 
Sec. 7. 21-A MRSA §l059, sub-§2, ~ is enacted to read: 
F. 
A committee shall report by electronic means and provide 
a hard copy to the Secretary of State if that committee 
raises or expends more than $10,000 in the aggregate during 
a campaign. 
SUMMARY 
This bill does the following: 
1. 
It requires the Secretary of State in conjunction with 
the Revisor of Statutes to draft a 
proposed ballot question 
summary for proposed direct initiative legislation and to post 
the summary on the Internet; 
2. 
It requires that the proposed ballot question summary 
contain prescribed language informing the voter of the costs of 
ballot questions and that the petition circulator must offer the 
voter the opportunity to read and keep a copy of the summary 
before signing the petition; 
3. 
It requires that the petition contain a header stating 
that each voter has a right to read the proposed ballot question 
summary before signing the petition; 
4. 
It requires that the petition be divided into 2 columns 
for signatures to identify 
voters who read the proposed ballot 
question summary and signed the petition and those who did not 
read the summary but still signed the petition; 
5. 
It requires the petition circulator to certify that all 
voters were given the opportunity to read the proposed ballot 
question 
summary 
before 
signing 
the petition 
and 
makes 
the 
falsification of such certification a crime; 
6. 
It requires 
a 
person that is circulating a 
petition 
within 250 feet of a polling place to post a sign that reads "Not 
a Polling Place"; 
7. 
It requires a person who is paid to circulate a petition 
to wear 
a button stating that that person is being paid to 
circulate a petition and requires the person to disclose who is 
paying for the services upon the request of a voter; 
8. 
It requires that financial reports be filed during the 
signature-gathering phase of a direct initiative campaign; 
9. 
It reduces the threshold for reporting financial reports 
from $1,500 to $250 for all political action committees and for 
persons not defined as political action committees; and 
10. 
It requires 
defined as political 
both electronically 
raised or spent. 
political action committees and persons not 
action committees to file financial reports 
and in hard copy if more than $10,000 is