Posted on 07/10/2026 11:21:06 AM PDT by Steven Scharf
Portland Press Herald
Trans student referendum will not be on Maine’s November ballot, high court rules
The Supreme Judicial Court said the Secretary of State was right to invalidate more than 1,000 signatures improperly collected by out-of-state circulators. July 10, 2026
Riley Board, Staff Writer
A ballot question seeking to limit transgender students’ rights in sports and access to school facilities will not appear on the November ballot, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday.
The citizens’ initiative, filed by a group called Protect Girls Sports, initially qualified for the ballot but later met a legal challenge over the signature collection process, which a group of citizens said broke several state rules and resulted in invalid signatures.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows agreed and rejected nearly 4,000 signatures, leaving the group 500 names below the required threshold. A Superior Court judge upheld that decision last month, but the group appealed.
Protect Girls Sports’ arguments to the Supreme Judicial Court on July 1 hinged on about 1,500 signatures collected by four out-of-state circulators, who didn’t check a box on a required form saying they would submit to Maine’s jurisdiction.
Bellows threw out the signatures of those four circulators, but an attorney for the ballot initiative group argued that she improperly relied on a court order from several years ago to create that form, and that she did not have the right to invalidate signatures on that basis.
The high court, in a unanimous decision Friday, said Bellows had not only the right but the obligation to invalidate those signatures. They wrote that requiring signature collectors from outside of Maine to consent to the state’s laws was not a novel idea, but a practice in line with the state Constitution.
“As a result of the Secretary’s proper invalidation of the signatures collected by these four circulators, the petition fell below the constitutional threshold for an initiative petition to be submitted to the voters of Maine,” the court wrote. “The Secretary thus correctly determined the petition to be invalid.”
The referendum would have required participation in school sports and use of facilities including bathrooms and locker rooms to be based on a student’s sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity.
In a separate federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, one of those signature gatherers and three people who signed petitions also challenged the decision to invalidate the signatures. Protect Girls Sports is not a named party in that suit but supports the plaintiffs’ arguments.
Although the question will not appear on the November ballot, the petitioners are allowed to keep collecting names; per the state’s constitution, their initial signatures only remain valid for a year after the petition was filed with the secretary’s office. In this case, that occurred on Nov. 3, 2025.
Protect Girls Sports said in a Friday afternoon statement that it disagreed with the court’s decision. Leyland Streiff of Brunswick, the lead petitioner, said his commitment to “the rights of females that simply want single-sex private spaces & competitive sports in schools” remains unchanged.
“Our committee continues to believe that the sex-based civil rights of Maine’s most vulnerable population — its children — deserve protecting,” Streiff said. “We don’t believe Mainers want sex-based discrimination to continue in our public schools.”
Bellows said in a statement Friday afternoon that she was grateful for but not surprised by the ruling. She said citizen initiatives are an important tool of direct democracy, and voters should be able to have confidence in their integrity.
“This petition did not meet the legal requirements for inclusion and therefore did not qualify for the ballot after our legal review,” she said.
David Farmer, the campaign manager of the multi-organization committee formed to oppose the ballot question, said it was a good day for the rule of law in Maine.
That committee includes EqualityMaine, the Maine Women’s Lobby and GLAD Law, an LGBTQ legal defense organization. The groups have consistently criticized the initiative for receiving $800,000 from Wisconsin billionaire and conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein.
“The proposed ballot question targeted an entire community,” Farmer said. “Questions about sports and sports participation can be passionate, but Maine doesn’t need a billionaire to tell us what to do or how to do it.”
Gia Drew, director of EqualityMaine, said transgender students deserve the same opportunities as their peers, and said Maine can’t allow billionaires to, “manipulate our system of laws and procedures in an attempt to turn back decades of hard fought civil rights protections.”
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That is an acceptable decision as long as they apply the same standards to all similar cases.
I’m sorry Anchor Baby, you didn’t check a form.
The Nine in Black
The leftist loons in charge will find some other fake pretext to disqualify the referendum documents, even if they collect a million valid signatures.
By any means necessary.
Sex is not "assigned at birth", in fact, it's not "assigned" at all. It is a readily discerned fact which requires no training and no expertise, and is done daily by humans all over the planet, with IQs ranging from 60 (Somalia) to 160.
5. What is the process for curing errors on an absentee ballot in Maine?
In Maine, the process for curing errors on an absentee ballot involves the following steps:
1. First, if there is an error on your absentee ballot, such as a missing signature or a signature discrepancy, the election officials will contact you to inform you of the issue.
2. You will then be provided with instructions on how to cure the error. This may involve submitting a signed affidavit confirming your identity and intent to vote.
3. In some cases, you may be required to provide additional documentation or evidence to verify your identity and eligibility to vote.
4. Once you have completed the necessary steps to cure the error, your ballot will be counted and your vote will be included in the final tally.
5. It is important to respond promptly to any notifications regarding errors on your absentee ballot to ensure that your vote is properly counted in the election.
Always be aware of how the left rolls.
Bureaucrats and Bureaucracies demand rigid adherence to every document, stamp, official seal, jot and tittle.
Except say, Illegal Aliens. Then? “The hell with documents. They don’t need anything! The Biden regime apparatchiks were importing illegal aliens by commercial aircraft - and they were authorized to fly without ID. Their arrest warrants and final deportation orders were considered sufficient.
Ain’t it grand? Leftists are at war with the Nation, and everyone else treats it like some sort of debate, like this Referendum. Leftists don’t GAF about the law.
“The federal judge, a Trump appointee, rejected their claims and told Trump’s lawyers that they should be suing counties that didn’t help voters cure ballots.”
“Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler agreed with lawyers for the state’s Democratic administration and ruled that county courts have jurisdiction in the matter, not a state court, because counties have the authority under state law to make rules, regulations and instructions necessary to run an election.”
https://www.wtae.com/article/pennsylvania-mail-voting-ballot-curing-lawsuit/43402809
ARTICLE I, SECTION 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections, for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed by the legislature thereof.
US Constitution
Perhaps Pennsylvania’s senators and representatives are not legally elected.
“they were authorized to fly without ID”
I believe the ID is so people can’t resell their advance purchase tickets.
The TSA ensures security.
These were petition signatures, not absentee ballots. Everything in your post is not relavant to this issue.
Separetly, there were no problems in the 1,500 signatures, the issue was that 4 out of state collectors did not check a relavant box which was not caught by the petition committee before submitting the signatures.
Did you know that submitting a photo ID for an absentee ballot is easy?
“The TXT2CURE program uses smartphones to ease voter accessibility following a rejected ballot. When a Colorado voter learns of a signature discrepancy on their ballot, they can simply text a provided phone number and receive a link to a customized webpage. Once the voter enters their voter identification number, they can simply sign a digital affidavit and submit a photo of an acceptable photo ID to complete the process. In a few minutes and conveniently on their phone, voters are assured that their ballot is cast and counted.”
https://www.csg.org/2022/09/20/ballot-curing-101/
“These were petition signatures, not absentee ballots. Everything in your post is not relevant to this issue.”
Is any leftist court going to say curing is not constitutionally required?
Why even have representatives? Is it conservative to support the concept of referenda/referendums?
“Separetly, there were no problems in the 1,500 signatures, the issue was that 4 out of state collectors did not check a relevant box which was not caught by the petition committee before submitting the signatures.”
The “immaterial” mistakes of third parties shouldn’t void my democratic rights.
(B)deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election; or
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/52/10101
“election...2. a public vote upon a proposition submitted.”
my copy of The Random House Dictionary from the 1970s
“Is it conservative to support the concept of referenda/referendums?”
I regard them as in conflict with the ARTICLE IV, SECTION 4 requirement that “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican from of government,”
“a form of government in which the power belongs to a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by the leaders and representatives elected by those citizens to govern according to law”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic
Note the use of “citizens” and the requirement to “guarantee”.
************
ARTICLE IV.
SECTION 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.”
“They wrote that requiring signature collectors from outside of Maine to consent to the state’s laws was not a novel idea, but a practice in line with the state Constitution.”
Maybe some babies aren’t anchored after all.
Maybe anchorages can be closed at the state level.
OK, that makes me feel secure, then. LOL
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