I’d like to express my full support for the statements made by Lucy Ward in her letter titled “People, not corporations, have rights” published online Aug. 26. Fortunately for Mainers, the National Organization for Marriage’s attempt to undermine our overwhelmingly successful system failed.

However, the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to treat corporations as people has threatened the integrity of elections nationally.

Last January, the court ruled that corporations enjoy the same speech rights as people in elections, allowing for unlimited corporate political spending and overturning nearly a century of precedent.

In the coming weeks, Congress will consider the Disclose Act, which requires that corporations disclose their political spending, and stand behind their ads like any candidate for office.

By supporting similar disclosure laws statewide, Mainers have indicated time and again they believe that neither allowing special interests to spend unlimited amounts, nor to spend in secret, enhance our first amendment rights.

When Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins return to Washington on Sept. 13, they should work to pass the Disclose Act, so that citizens here and across the country will know the impact private interests exert on our political process.

Chris Bell, Yarmouth