State of Maine

Historical Deorganizations

Municipal deorganization is a multiyear, multistep statutory process that results in a deorganization bill that is presented to the Maine Legislature for consideration. Each deorganization bill requires approval by the legal voters of the deorganizing municipality in the form of a referendum.  Therefore, if the Legislature approves the deorganization bill and enacts it into law, the deorganization is not effective unless the legal voters of the municipality approve the referendum deorganization question by a two thirds majority. This list of deorganized townships all have legislative documents that were approved by the Maine Legislature.  However, the older the deorganization, the more difficult it is to verify the approval of the referendum question by municipal voters.   Prior to 1989, there was no statutory requirement to file a certificate of the election of the final vote on the municipal deorganization with the Secretary of the State. 
The information contained in the charts was collected from the following sources,

  • Maine Register 2015 Edition
  • Counties Cities Towns and Plantations of Maine, A Handbook of  Incorporations, Dissolutions and Boundary Changes, Maine State Archives, 1940
  • Electronic database managed by the former State Planning Office
  • Maine Special and Private Laws