AUGUSTA — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has released the draft rule implementing a 2021 law that established the Secretary's authority to recall or refuse to issue vanity license plates which meet certain criteria, including profanities and obscenities, certain derogatory references, and references to sexual acts.
AUGUSTA — Following increasing reports of catalytic converter thefts around the state, the Maine Legislature passed a new law, signed by Gov. Janet Mills in April, to strengthen chain of custody requirements and discourage these thefts.
AUGUSTA — The citizen initiative petition regarding campaign spending restrictions has been found valid, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows confirmed today.
The petitions for "An Act To Prohibit Campaign Spending by Foreign Governments and Promote an Anticorruption Amendment to the United States Constitution" had been in circulation since October 27, 2021. On November 1, 2022 the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions received 11,292 petition forms with 79,660 signatures of voters who support the initiative.
AUGUSTA — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows will be testifying today on a bill to protect Maine’s election workers, and other election-related legislation.
The bill, L.D. 1821, "An Act To Make Interfering with an Election Official a Class C Crime" was introduced by Rep. Bruce White, D-Waterville.
AUGUSTA — The candidate forms for the 2022 elections are now available online so candidates can begin collecting signatures on January 1, 2022 for the coming election cycle.
This is the first time petition forms and candidate consent and certification of enrollment/unenrollment have been available online.
AUGUSTA — A recount of ballots cast has been requested and scheduled for the Republican Primary in State House District 73, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced today.
A recount for the office of State House District 73 between candidates Nancy J. Bessey and Michael Soboleski is scheduled for Friday, June 24, 2022 at 10:00 am. Unofficial, preliminary results show Bessey with 413 votes and Soboleski with 419 votes.
State House District 73 includes 22 towns in the counties of Franklin, Oxford, and Somerset.
AUGUSTA — The Legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs committee voted today to support bills to strengthen protections for election workers, ballots, and election infrastructure.
AUGUSTA — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Deputy Secretary of State and head of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles Cathie Curtis will be testifying tomorrow 1/13/2022 in favor of two bills before the Legislature’s Transportation Committee.
AUGUSTA — Following the completion of ranked-choice voting tabulations, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced that the Hon. Michael D. Perkins of Oakland won the Republican Primary for State Senate District 16.
AUGUSTA — The Secretary of State's Corporations Division has made the 2022 corporate annual reports available online. For the first time, under a new law, domestic publicly held corporations reporting with the Secretary of State will be asked to include how many women and men are serving on their board of directors in the interest of increasing information about gender equity in corporation leadership.