Gerard Caron walked into the Auburn Post Office and was met by a woman with a pair of clipboards.

“This petition is against gay marriage and this other petition is to support gay marriage,” she said, according to Caron.

The Poland man said he asked her why there would be a petition to support something that already happened, referring to the petition “in support of” gay marriage.

“She just kinda gave me a little grin and didn’t say anything,” he said.

Then he looked at the two petitions and discovered they were identical, both were supporting the repeal of the same-sex marriage law, Caron said.

Caron said he spoke to a friend who had a similar experience at the Lewiston Post Office.

Julie Flynn, deputy secretary of state, said her office has received calls from people concerned about the petitioning process, but not a surprising number.

“It’s a buyer beware situation for the voter; they really need to be sure of what they are signing,” she said. “But people can say what they want, it’s a First Amendment issue. We don’t have anything in law that allows us to monitor or enforce signature gatherers.”

Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union and a leader of the coalition seeking to maintain the same-sex marriage law, agreed petitioners have a right to free speech.

“They can say anything they want to say. It’s just unfortunate that they are suggesting that signing the petition would mean you were a supporter of same-sex marriage when in fact, it’s the opposite,” she said.

Marc Mutty, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and chairman of the StandForMarriageMaine political action committee backing the repeal effort, said he did not condone lying to obtain signatures.

“We’ve been very clear, certainly with our volunteers, and the paid people as well, they are not to use any kind of tactics that would divert from the truth about what you are collecting signatures for,” he said.

The PAC has hired the same national signature-gathering group used by the campaign that successfully repealed state beverage taxes last fall, according to state records.

Maine law requires petitioners or official witnesses to be registered Maine voters, something Flynn said the state checks on before verifying their lists of signatures.

“Circulators have to take an oath before a notary public that all of the signatures were made in their presence and they are of the people who they purport to be,” she said.

Mutty said the potential for mischief exists on both sides of the campaign. “Nobody can control what people do, on either side,” he said.

He said he had heard rumors that some of the law’s supporters were planning to sabotage petitions, but it was before any signatures were being collected.

“I haven’t heard any actual reports of that,” he said. “Of course, if there is fraud going on, which could really create havoc, if you’re good at it we’re not going to know (about the fraud).”

He said he didn’t suspect foul play, however.

The repeal effort is expected to garner national attention because no same-sex marriage law has survived a voter referendum. A public relations firm that successfully overturned a similar California law last fall has been hired as a consultant by the StandForMarriageMaine PAC. Both sides are currently raising money for what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar effort.

Petition gatherers must turn in 55,087 valid signatures by early August to get the repeal question on the ballot this November.