Maine’s highest court affirms decision to keep trans athlete referendum off the ballot

PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) - The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed the ruling of a Cumberland County Superior Court judge that a citizen initiative regarding transgender athletes in Maine schools is invalid due to a lack of valid signatures.

That ruling means the state’s highest court says the citizen initiative will not be on the ballot in November.

“As a result of the Secretary’s proper invalidation of the signatures collected by these four circulators, the petition fell below the constitutional threshold for an initiative petition to be submitted to the voters of Maine. The Secretary thus correctly determined the petition to be invalid,” the justices wrote in their ruling, issued on Friday.

In June, Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine appealed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court over a ruling from a Cumberland County Superior Court judge.

The initiative, “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex‚” would mandate that a student’s participation in school sports and their use of facilities align with the sex on their birth certificate.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced on March 17 that the citizen initiative effort had enough valid signatures to move forward to the Nov. 3 general election. But less than two weeks later, three Maine voters filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of those signatures. Protect Girls’ Sports then filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit on April 1.

On May 26, Bellows announced that the referendum would no longer make its way to the ballot, less than a week after a two-day hearing where a presiding officer recommended the question be invalidated due to it not meeting the required number of valid signatures.

“Citizen initiatives are direct democracy. Just as we take voting security seriously, we take petition integrity seriously,” Bellows said in a statement on her decision. “Unfortunately, some out-of-state circulators failed to meet certain legal requirements for petitions, resulting in this initiative failing to qualify for the ballot after legal review.”

On June 11, a Cumberland County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Bellows’ assessment that citizen petitioners did not obtain enough valid signatures to get the referendum question on the ballot.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments on the appeal on July 1 at the Capitol Judicial Center in Augusta.

Bellows has finalized the wording of the proposed referendum question, even though her office ruled that the measure failed to qualify for November’s ballot. Her office said the final wording was issued because the referendum could still appear on the ballot if Bellows’ decision is overturned on appeal.

If the citizen initiative appears on the ballot, voters would be asked: “Do you want to change civil rights and education laws to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms, other private spaces, and sports, based on the sex on every child’s original birth certificate, and allow students to sue the schools?”

In a statement Friday, the Protect Girls Sports in Maine committee said it disagrees with the court’s decision:

“The Law Court decision emphasized the importance of the federal court’s Consent Order in an earlier case, and we will seek clarification of that consent order in federal court as 1,520 otherwise-valid voters’ signatures hang in the balance. We intend to see that process through.”