Ranked Choice Voting People’s Veto committee to submit signatures collected across Maine
Gray Lookner, of Camden, visited Islesboro, Jan. 30, picking up signed petitions on the island to restore Ranked Choice Voting law. (Photo courtesy Gray Lookner)
Gray Lookner, of Camden, visited Islesboro, Jan. 30, picking up signed petitions on the island to restore Ranked Choice Voting law. (Photo courtesy Gray Lookner)
In what organizers say has been nothing short of a Herculean effort, the People’s Veto is in its final week for collecting and turning in signatures for a Ranked Choice Voting petition. The Committee for Ranked Choice Voting will submit signatures Feb. 2 to Maine’s Secretary of State on behalf of the people of Maine to place on the June 2018 ballot a People’s Veto to restore Maine’s Ranked Choice Voting law.
Volunteers were driving all over Maine to submit the final signatures to clerks on the last day to get them verified.
Volunteers then picked them up and return signatures to headquarters prior to the final submission to the Secretary of State.
Campaign Manager Kyle Bailey said, in a news release: “Maine people have been forced to do this People’s Veto in the dead of winter with a polar vortex and cyclone bomb because politicians in Augusta chose to ignore the will of the people. Maine people knew what they voted for when they passed Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) into law, and now they are demonstrating just how much they want it.”
In November of 2016, the people of Maine voted to support RCV.
“At the last minute, when they thought no one was looking, in October of 2017 the legislature voted to kill it,” said the committee. “Voters responded immediately by filing a People’s Veto to restore Ranked Choice Voting, for primary and federal elections beginning with the June 2018 primaries.
In the release, Dick Woodbury, campaign chairman, said: “I am grateful for all the volunteers who worked on this – again. The passion, commitment and hard work is inspiring. Through subzero temperatures, the holidays, and with an incredibly tight deadline, people have stepped up to protect their democracy. And yes, it is aggravating that the legislature required us to do this twice, after people already voted clearly for more voice and more choice.”
People who were collecting signatures in Maine drove to more than 400 towns and cities across the state to pick up the signatures that they dropped off. The signatures will get sorted and counted at headquarters and processed to be sent to the Secretary of State in Augusta on Feb. 2.
For More information on the People’s Veto: http://www.rcvmaine.com
Event Date
Address
United States
