Signature gathering ceases, Maine petition drive deadline arrives

January 30, 2012

By Al Ortiz

AUGUSTA, Maine: The big day for initiative supporters in the state of Maine has arrived. Today, January 30, marks the petition drive deadline, as any and all ballot initiative efforts that hope to place their proposal on the 2012 ballot must submit collected signatures to the Maine Secretary of State's office by the end of the business day.

In order for a measure to be placed on the ballot, 57,277 signatures need to be submitted. Signatures must be obtained from registered voters in the state. If enough signatures are collected, a measure would then be sent to the Maine State Legislature for review. If the lawmaking body chooses not to enact a measure into a law, it then gets sent to the 2012 ballot for a public vote.

According to the Maine Secretary of State's website, six proposals were approved for circulation for a possible 2012 vote. Most notably, a same sex marriage question effort claims to have collected enough signatures for the ballot. Equality Maine collected about 100,000 signatures; 36,000 of those signatures were collected on Election Day, November 6, 2011, surpassing the required number.

The following is a list of the measures that were approved for circulation. Updates will be give at the end of the day announcing which initiative efforts submitted signatures by the deadline:

See also

• Laws governing the initiative process in Maine
• Maine 2012 ballot measures
• List of Maine ballot measures

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