Our View
Question 7: Five days for democracy
There's no harm in giving municipal officials five extra days to certify signatures on petitions. None. Zero. Zilch.
It's needed. There are occasions now when town offices must rush through validations for reasons beyond their origination. If a petition-gatherer dawdles until the last day to drop off their sheets, officials must respond in haste. This is neither fair to them, nor to the democratic process.
Question 7 on the ballot would give officials five extra days of breathing room to review petitions and ensure signatures are valid. It makes sense; this time should allow clerks and registrars to give each petition appropriate scrutiny, while also doing the town's daily business.
For larger communities, like Lewiston-Auburn, this breathing room is necessary given the sheer volume of signatures that are gathered in them. (Which gets multiplied, of course, by whatever number of ballot initiatives are being circulated at any one time.)
Question 7 would also extend the time proponents of citizen initiatives have to return signatures; this way, the extension of time for towns would also be given to campaigns. That makes sense, too.
So does everything about Question 7. On Nov. 3, our endorsement is to vote yes.
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Displaying comments, from newest to oldest
verified I agree with giving
I agree with giving municipal more time to verify, but giving gatherers more time defeats the benefit. Every time gatherers submit their petitions at the last minute, now they'll do it later. I think we need to examine the benefit of petitions. While it is great for a grass root movement to get their issued address, it has abused by entities like the Maine Heritage Policy group who basically is a bunch of out of state businesses who pay people to gather signatures just for their agenda over and over again. I don't know the answer, because the petition process is a good one, but something has to be done to discourage these repeat referendums from one group.
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