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Posted on 05/22/2026 10:30:21 AM PDT by Steven Scharf
Portland Press Herald Maine official recommends transgender athlete referendum be invalidated Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien says that supporters fell roughly 500 valid signatures short of qualifying for the November ballot.
May 21, 2026
Billy Kobin, Staff Writer
A Maine official is recommending that a proposed referendum seeking to ban transgender athletes from competing in a way that aligns with their gender identity not appear on the November ballot.
The rebuke Thursday came from Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien, the designated hearing officer in a case that has pitted supporters of the referendum against opponents. McBrien found that organizers of the referendum fell roughly 500 valid signatures short of qualifying for the ballot.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, initially found in March that the referendum supporters had gathered enough valid signatures. But now that ruling is in question.
The referendum’s organizers have until the end of Saturday to file an objection, according to Bellows’ office. She will make a final determination on the referendum’s validity Tuesday morning, after which each side could also file an appeal in court.
. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
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We await until Tuesday for the SOS's decision which the campaign could then appeal. The campaign could also collect additional signatures and get it on the 2027 ballot. They wanted it on the 2026 ballot to boost center right participation in the election.
* the Secy of State, Shenna Bellows is running for governor of Maine.
Note, I was involved in the signature collecting process, but not the management of the campaign. The campaign manager hire two separate companies to collect signatures.
Ray Richardson host a conservative daily moring radio show in Maine. He just posted this on Facebook while I was posting on FR.
I guess i don’t understand
it is widely rumored that Secretary of State Shenna Bellows will invalidate the Protect Girls ballot initiative
when Bellows was last on my show, she praised the staff at the Secretary of State’s office, talking about how conscientious and effective they are at their jobs 
I agreed - I have witnessed it personally
The signatures to place this effort on the ballot were certified by town clerks throughout Maine
Once the signatures were turned into the Secretary of State’s office to officially qualify for the ballot, the staff certified the signatures as valid
This certification qualified the initiative to be on the ballot, subject to direct legislative action
if the rumor is true, and the Secretary of State is going to disqualify this ballot initiative on Tuesday
Why does the secretary of State no longer have confidence in the work that her staff did to certify these ballots
Frankly, how can the people of Maine have confidence in the June/November election outcome, if the leader of the Department doesn’t trust her staff’s work
I am not buying it
The staff at the Secretary of State’s office did a good job in certifying the signatures
Shenna Bellows: don’t play politics with your staff’s credibility
Support your staff
Defend their work
Leave the initiative on the November ballot
if you will turn on your staff for Political gain
How do we know you won’t turn on the people of Maine for political gain
Why were they stupid enough to include males in female sports? Quit the charade. Why do they have distinct male and female sports programs in the first place?
What an effed-up state.
“ because that’s what the feminists want/“
The 19th Amendment was a terrible mistake.
L
AI Overview:
The Transgender Rights Ballot ChallengeThe proposed ballot initiative, titled “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex,” aimed to restrict transgender students’ access. It sought to require Maine schools to separate sports teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms based on biological sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity. Opponents and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups argued the measure directly violated the Maine Human Rights Act.
AI Overview:
McBrien’s Ruling & FindingsFollowing a formal review ordered by the Maine Superior Court, McBrien presided over an evidentiary hearing to assess the validity of petition signatures gathered by the campaign. She officially recommended throwing out over 12,000 signatures due to widespread circulator misconduct:
Unattended Petitions: Over 1,000 signatures were tossed because campaign workers left petition forms completely unattended at polling places, allowing people to sign without a legally required witness.
Affidavit & Jurisdictional Failures: More than 2,300 signatures were disqualified because circulators failed to sign necessary affidavits on time. Another 1,400 were thrown out because a out-of-state circulator refused to legally consent to Maine’s investigative jurisdiction.
Forged Signatures: All signatures collected by one specific campaign worker were discarded after a review revealed they did not match voter registration files, with at least one confirmed as forged.
Ultimately, McBrien found the campaign submitted only 67,150 valid signatures—leaving them 532 signatures short of the 67,682 required to place the measure on the ballot.
Next Steps
The recommendation has been sent to Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is scheduled to issue a final, binding determination on the referendum’s viability. Organizers have a brief window to file formal objections before the final decision..
HOW CONVENIENT 🤔🤔🤔 🙄🙄🙄 🤔🤔🤔
“Maine official recommends transgender athlete referendum be invalidated”. I thought Maine cared mostly about lobsters, blueberries and moose.
Maine’s DEMOCRATIC delegates bringing strong
LGBTQ+ representation to national convention
all of the N.E. states are effed up.
Why Jesus Said “Remember Lot’s Wife” (SHORT VIDEO - Billy Graham Preaching)
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/4375343/posts
Direct Link 🔗🔗🔗 to the video
https://youtube.com/shorts/xyA4k8S5joU?si=0G57FZzKzKYEWQdl
Luke 17:28-32
New King James Version
28 Likewise as it was also in the Days of Lot:
They Ate, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold,
They Planted, They Built;
29 but on the Day that Lot went out of Sodom
it Rained Fire And Brimstone From Heaven
And Destroyed Them All
30 Even so will it be in the Day when
the Son of Man is Revealed.
31 “In that Day, he who is on the housetop,
and his goods are in the house,
let him not come down to take them away.
And likewise the one who is in the field,
let him not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s Wife.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A28-32&version=NKJV
The Terrifying Reality of Sodom and Gomorrah
((Billy Graham sermon again - I had this one bookmarked
recently even before the one above ☝️☝️☝️
https://youtube.com/shorts/D-4N-TMWI-0?si=FIO8MSdnRYPurzuP
Video is less than 90 Seconds in Length
Life would be a lot better if Democrat politicians checked the validity of actual votes as closely as they check signatures on an initiative petition that they don’t agree with.
,,, twice the article mentions “roughly five hundred” signatures short. How difficult is it to state the exact number? Also, this situation of people counting themselves on the basis of identity rather than fact really needs a new category - “hybrid”.
Articles like this always round up or down the numbers. There are several factors that go into the equation and some of them are not exact sets of numbers, so around 500 is close enough for now.
If the campaign were to go after additional signatures, they will be looking for 10,000 to 20,000 more to make sure they are well above the threshold.
I will note this article just posted about the Dow
Dow adds nearly 300 points Friday for new record close
Standard practice for newspaper writing. The actual number is 291.
Something is very wrong in Maine.
Right after 'they' discovered that fags would make good role models and teachers of boys.
Argued?
How is that possible?
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