A ruling by Maine's highest court that knocked Herbert Hoffman's name off the November ballot could affect more than just Maine's U.S. Senate race.
The decision by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court tightens the laws surrounding the gathering of signatures on petitions for candidates seeking office, and it likely will affect the process for placing so-called "people's veto" questions on the ballot.
The ruling requires that the people who gather signatures actually witness each person's signature. It most likely means that petition circulators and would-be candidates will keep a closer watch on who is signing their documents.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap noted that it was common at caucuses and other official political gatherings for candidates to have petitions on a table to be signed by other party members – with no one really watching.
"The fact of the matter is, what the Hoffman decision tells us is that those days are over. You can't do that anymore," said Dunlap.
The ruling also made clear that if one signature on a petition sheet does not meet that requirement, the whole sheet of signatures must be invalidated by the secretary of state.
Hoffman, an independent who was seeking to run in the U.S. Senate race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, collected 4,038 signatures – just a bit more than the 4,000 needed to get on the ballot.
The Maine Democratic Party challenged some of the signatures, arguing that several people who signed Hoffman's petition were not witnessed by the "petition circulator" – in this case, Hoffman himself.
Dunlap's office invalidated three signatures on Hoffman's petition, but did not invalidate the three petition pages, allowing Hoffman to remain on the ballot.
The Democrats challenged that ruling in Superior Court, which sided last month with Hoffman and the secretary of state. That ruling was appealed to the state supreme court, which overtuned the decision – removing Hoffman from the Nov. 4 ballot – in a ruling last week.
Dunlap said he thought the court was thoughtful in its judgment in looking at a portion of the election law that had not been examined. He said the Legislature will likely review the language of the laws in question, particularly what it means to have a petition signed "in the presence" of the signature gatherers.
One area the ruling is likely to affect is the process by which signatures are gathered. Many referendum drives in Maine rely on paid petitioners from out of state to gather signatures. But under Maine's Constitution, the people actually circulating the petition must be Maine residents.
What often happens, said Dan Billings, a Republican activist and attorney from Waterville, is that the professionals pair up with Maine residents. The pros make the pitch to would-be signers, and the Mainer who is supposed to witness the signature often isn't there, but rather in a nearby car or reading a book.
"From our perspective, it just reinforces for me the importance of, if possible, just regular Maine people collecting petition signatures," said Roy Lenardson, executive director of Maine Leads, a group that is collecting signatures for several citizen initiatives for the 2009 ballot.
Lenardson's group has trained about 300 people in the laws around signature gathering. He said the Hoffman ruling will make his group redouble efforts to make sure everyone follows proper procedures.
"This means line of sight, period," said Lenardson, meaning the collectors have to watch each signature being made.
There is one big citizens initiative aimed at this November's ballot, but the Hoffman decision likely won't affect it, according to people on both sides of the issue.
In its effort to repeal a tax on beer, wine and soda, the Fed Up With Taxes Coalition submitted more than 90,000 signatures to the secretary...
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