Opinion ID: 2349660
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Legislative History Of Section 737-A(10)

Text: [¶ 14] Following a ballot-tampering scandal in 1992, a Special Commission to Review the Electoral Process made a series of recommendations to amend the statutory scheme governing election recounts. The Commission proposed legislation that sent all recount appeals to the courts for resolution: 10. Appeal to court. If there are enough challenged or disputed ballots to affect the result of an election, the Secretary of State shall forward the ballots and related records for that election to the clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court shall determine the result of the election pursuant to procedures adopted by court rule. The decision of the Chief Justice is final and must be certified to the Governor by the Chief Justice. L.D. 1477, § 35 (16th Legis. 1993). The Commission also proposed an amendment to the Constitution. L.D. 1474 (16th Legis. 1993). The proposal to amend the Constitution, however, died between the Houses. See 2 Legis. Rec. House H-1410 (1993). [¶ 15] The Attorney General issued an opinion that two provisions of the bill would violate the Constitution. [1] In response, Representative Gwadosky commented as follows: Recently, upon enactment, we were contacted by individuals who were concerned about two provisions which they thought would make this bill essentially unconstitutional and we have an opinion from the Attorney General which in fact indicated that there were two provisions of the bill that needed to be adjusted and this amendment now to the Committee of Conference Report Amendment which was unanimous is to address those two provisions. The first deals with an unconstitutional provision in the original bill that would have allowed the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court the authority to determine recounts and election proceedings of the House and Senate members. As you may have remembered in the original bill, 1477, there was reference to recounts and the appeals going to the Supreme Judicial Court. There was also a separate bill, L.D. 1474, which was an amendment to the Constitution because you have to in fact amend the Constitution to make that change. That bill was defeated and the reference now to the Supreme Court had to be struck from this provision. 2 Legis. Rec. House H-1410 (1993) (emphasis added). As a result, the Legislature adopted the current language of section 737-A(10). [¶ 16] Representative Gwadosky's comments indicate that the Legislature's intent, when enacting the amendment to section 737-A(10), was to address the constitutional problems raised in the Commission's proposed bill, in particular, the attempt to give the Supreme Judicial Court jurisdiction over recount appeals in general elections to the Senate and the House of Representatives, which is prohibited by Art. IV, Part 3, Section 3, of the Maine Constitution. Because, however, the Constitution does not prohibit giving the Supreme Judicial Court jurisdiction over recount appeals in primary elections to the Senate and the House, and Representative Gwadosky's comments refer only to constitutional concerns, the only rational conclusion is that the intent of the Legislature was to give the judicial branch jurisdiction over recount appeals in all primary elections. [2] [¶ 17] Because of the strong legislative history suggesting that the Legislature did not intend to reserve to itself jurisdiction over recount appeals in primary elections, we conclude that we have jurisdiction over such appeals.