“Voter ID for Maine” Campaign a threat to voting rights and absentee voting
[PORTLAND, ME] – The “Voter ID for Maine” citizen’s initiative campaign will deliver their signatures to the Secretary of State on Monday, January 6, solidifying the prospect of a November referendum. The League of Women Voters of Maine (LWVME) opposes voter ID laws and measures to curtail absentee voting and views them as forms of voter suppression.
“It’s disappointing to see Mainers try to impose these barriers on their fellow Mainers’ right to vote, when this state is justly proud of its high voter participation rates,” said Anna Kellar, Executive Director of LWVME. “These restrictions can and will harm every type of voter.”
The Voter ID requirement proposed in Maine would be one of the most restrictive anywhere in the county. The "Voter ID for Maine" campaign is a broad attack on voting rights that, if implemented, would disenfranchise elderly, poor, disabled, rural, and BIPOC voters across Maine. It would require photo ID to vote and to vote absentee, and it would exclude a number of currently accepted IDs, like student and tribal IDs.
It would be highly restrictive.
It’s not only Voter ID. The legislation does additional harm by rolling back ongoing absentee voting, where a voter can sign up to have an absentee ballot mailed to them automatically for each election cycle, and it limits the use and number of absentee ballot dropboxes. It also prevents an authorized third party from delivering an absentee ballot — a service that many elderly and disabled Mainers rely on. Absentee voting is safe and secure and a popular way to vote for many Mainers.
The League supports full voter participation by all eligible American citizens, and the League opposes efforts to create new barriers that block citizens' constitutional right to vote.
Since the 1970s, the League of Women Voters has worked to strengthen and protect the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In recent decades, and following the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Voting Rights Act has been slowly stripped away, and in the wake, voter ID requirements have gathered momentum. Such bills have only grown in numbers, especially in an era of election mis- and disinformation. These bills are passed under the guise that they will prevent voter fraud, but there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that disputes this theory.