In Short
The League of Women Voters supports voting systems that are secure, accurate, recountable, accessible, and transparent. Our democracy rests not only on the integrity of our election process, but also on the public confidence that we, as citizens, have in our elections.
The League believes that we here in Maine have enjoyed a generations-long record of professional, nonpartisan, voter-friendly administration of elections at both the state and municipal level. Our town and city clerks are among the most recognized and trusted government officials in our communities.
To secure public confidence and transparency in our elections for the future, support the following measures:
- Transparency as to election procedures and opportunities for members of the public to participate and observe the conduct of elections
- Ballot reconciliation forms for local election officials
- An election complaint and remediation process
- Routine monitoring by state and local election officials for double voting
- Rigorous pre- and post-election audits, including risk-limiting audits before certifying election results.
The Legislative Session:
During the 130th Legislature, two vital bills were passed in Maine to protect election integrity and to combat on-going national efforts to discredit electoral systems through rampant misinformation, which pose a serious threat to our democracy. LD 1779 will protect ballots after an election by ensuring they remain in the custody of our trusted election officials, and LD 1821 makes interfering with a public official performing an official function relating to a federal, state, or municipal election a Class D crime (misdemeanors) that can be referred for prosecution to the Attorney General’s office. These bills provide additional defense for preventing the overturning of an election by boosting protection for election officials and ballots.
During the 131st Legislature, we witnessed several bad bills come forward in the name of “election integrity” but were actually fueled by misinformation about the security of ballot drop boxes. One bill was LD 1055, which would have banned absentee ballot drop boxes altogether, and LD 1500, which wanted to require video surveillance of drop boxes and incorporate other redundant measures to “clean” Maine’s voter rolls. LWVME opposed both LD 1055 and 1500 because the League knows that drop boxes are secure and convenient and have been enormously popular with Maine voters. While it seems that conspiracy theories can indeed trickle into Maine politics, the League remains committed to fighting bad policy informed by misinformation.
See the League's archive of testimony.
Further Reading:
League of Women Voters of the United States, Report on Election Auditing (2009)
AP-NORC, Views on the American Election Process and Perceptions of Voter Fraud (2016)
ElectionAudits.org, Principles and Best Practices for Post-Election Audits (2009)
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