this is crazy, and you can see it s happening all over the country. the attempt to take away people s right to vote, to discourage people from voting. the republicans overplayed their hand once again in trying to talk about a gay alliance was frankly just a disgusting turn of events on their part. maine voters have said no. sorry to interrupt for a moment. it s strange to me they ran the big gay add, that was their final missive before people voted today. why did they turn to anti-gay advertising at the last minute here? it seems so unrelated and so random. so random. i think because they have no good argument for taking away your right to register on voting day. we ve been doing this for almost 40 years in the state of maine. had two incidents of fraud. it encourages people to vote. it makes it easier for working people and people who can t get to the polls. let s face it. this is a national agenda, money pouring in from the outside. they won t even disclose their donors. and they
and in maine, question 1 deciding whether there will be same-day voting registration. the associated press has now called this as well. same-day voter registration will be coming back in maine. it had been there for 38 years. republicans in the governor s office and the state legislature in maine got rid of it. maine voters have now put it back with 24% of precincts reporting. 59% of mainers voting to reinstate same-day voter registration, being able to register to vote on election day. 41% of voters voting against it. again, the associated press has called maine issue 1. in the great state of mississippi, the mitt romney supported so-called personhood amendment that would ban abortion as well as most popular forms of birth control and fertility treatment by defining a fertilized egg as a person, right now just 16% of precincts reporting, the no vote ahead at this point. 57% voting no in mississippi. 43% voting yes. again, just 16% in.
that s the new republican party argument against it. the republican party of maine placing this ad in the state s newspapers warning mainers that gay and lesbian special interests support reinstating same-day voter registration because they re out to corrupt maine s democracy or something. also from the republican party, this mailer name checking the, quote, gay marriage alliance. first you want to make voting harder because you say democrats are stealing elections, then it s because you don t like new voters. they re not committed. and now you re blaming, like, elton john, right? now you just want to knock the gays around a little bit. oh, you re not trying to knock the gays around? the maine republican chairman insisted the anti-gay ad they put in the newspapers is not gay bashing but part of the republican party s, quote, education efforts. for the record, some maine republicans have taken umbrage of what s being done to their
kind of alliance, really, just around hate. question the voters. it s disgusting what they were doing. i m thrilled maine people pushed it back. because of the way the governor s race was decided this past year, governor lupage was elected with a third of the vote, nowhere near a majority. what do you see as tonight s loss for him on this issue, meaning for the future of republicans in maine? do you think this is a broader shot across the bough? the republicans had a crazy agenda the governor got behind in the state. they had a crazy redistricting plan in the legislature, including the republicans pushback on that one. they were gerrymandering the lines. if you can t win the election, change the rules. they re doing that again. i hope this sends a strong message to our governor, our legislature and the victories around the country. this is one of the first 2012 elections and starting to tell us what the voters are thinking out there. the voters are saying this is an extreme agenda
with democracy. i hope the voters are starting to question this bizarre agenda out there. chellie pingree, democratic congresswoman from maine. thank you for talking to us tonight. i really appreciate it. thanks for having me. thanks to all the voters for doing the right thing. all right. next on this show, some more election results. we re still live here. it s going to be a long night. in all sorts of good ways. stay with us. economy delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they re closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. and here s what we did today: supported nearly 3 million stea