An Act To Amend the Verification and Certification Process for Direct Initiatives and People's Veto Referenda
Maine Legislature, Session 127, LD 0145
Committee: Veterans and Legal Affairs
Sponsors: RUSSELL, PATRICK, KINNEY
Amends: 21-A MRSA §902

Legislative Document 
No. 145 
H.P. 103 
House of Representatives, January 22, 2015 
An Act To Amend the Verification and Certification Process for 
Direct Initiatives and People's Veto Referenda 
Reference to the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs suggested and ordered printed. 
ROBERT B. HUNT 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative RUSSELL of Portland. 
Cosponsored by Senator PATRICK of Oxford and 
Representative: KINNEY of Limington. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  21-A MRSA §902, as amended by PL 2011, c. 342, §31, is further 
amended to read: 
§902.  Verification and certification 
The verification and certification of the petition, as required by the Constitution of 
Maine, Article IV, Part Third, Section 20, must be worded so that a single verification or 
certification may cover one or more pages fastened together as a single petition. 
The petitions must be signed, verified and certified in the same manner as are 
nonparty nomination petitions under section 354, subsections 3 and 4 and subsection 7, 
paragraphs paragraph A and C.  The circulator of a petition must sign the petition and 
verify the petition by oath or affirmation as described in section 354, subsection 7, 
paragraph A prior to submitting the petition to the registrar Secretary of State.  If the 
petitions submitted to the registrar Secretary of State are not signed and verified in 
accordance with this paragraph, the registrar Secretary of State may not certify the 
petitions and is required only to return the petitions.  The clerk or registrar Secretary of 
State shall keep a log of petitions submitted to the municipal Secretary of State's office 
for verification.  The log must contain the title of the petition, the name of the person 
submitting the petition, the date of submission, the number of petition forms submitted 
and the date and manner by which the petitions were returned.  The Secretary of State 
shall certify which names on a petition appear in the central voter registration system as 
registered voters in the municipality represented by that petition and may not certify any 
names that do not satisfy section 354, subsection 3. 
The Secretary of State shall conduct an audit of the verification and certification 
process under this section by sending a random sampling of 10% of the petitions received 
to be reviewed for accuracy by the municipal clerk or registrar of the municipality 
represented by each random petition selected for the audit. 
Sec. 2.  Appropriations and allocations.  The following appropriations and 
allocations are made. 
SECRETARY OF STATE, DEPARTMENT OF THE 
Division of Elections 
Initiative:  Provides funds for 3 clerical positions to assist in verifying and certifying 
people's veto referendum or direct initiative of legislation petitions. 
GENERAL FUND 
2015-16
2016-17
POSITIONS - LEGISLATIVE COUNT 
3.000
3.000
Personal Services 
$179,709
$179,709
GENERAL FUND TOTAL 
$179,709
$179,709
SUMMARY 
This bill removes the duty of verifying and certifying petitions in direct initiatives of 
legislation and people's veto referenda from municipal clerks and registrars and instead 
requires the Secretary of State to verify and certify all petitions. The Secretary of State is 
also required to send a random sampling of 10% of the petitions back to the 
municipalities to review for accuracy for audit purposes.  The bill also creates 3 positions 
in the Secretary of State's office to assist in the verification and certification process for 
petitions in direct initiatives and people's veto referenda.