Maine Voices Live with Reza Jalali and Morgan Rielly pressherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Maine lawmakers pass suite of bills to expand voting access
The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed the measures in a year when voting rights and access became political footballs in many states.
Share
During a year of pitched partisan battles elsewhere over voter rights and election processes, Maine lawmakers made it easier to register to vote and permanently adopted some election measures that had been implemented temporarily during the pandemic.
Not all voting-related measures had strong bipartisan backing in the Maine Legislature, to be sure. Bills opening the door to online voter registration or to allow college students to use their student ID when registering, for instance, were passed by the Democratic majority over the objections of Republican colleagues.
While some states restrict voting, Maine lawmakers pass bills to expand access sunjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sunjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bill to open Maine primaries gains bipartisan support
June 2, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A Maine bill that would allow unenrolled voters to vote in party primaries has gained bipartisan support in the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee and the support of former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Chloe Maxmin, D-Nobleboro, would allow unregistered voters to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries, but would not allow enrolled voters to vote across party lines, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Unenrolled voters who participate in a primary will not be automatically be enrolled in the party; however, participants will be counted as party members for the purposes of selecting and allocating delegates to state and national conventions.
Bill to open primaries in Maine gains support from Olympia Snowe pressherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.