At a time when many states are adopting measures that make it harder for people to vote, Maine stands for the other extreme.

It is the easiest state in the country for someone to cast a ballot.

In Maine, just about every resident who is 18 or older gets to vote — and, since the state has Election Day registration, they merely have to show up at the polls to do it.

Even those locked up in prison are free to join in, a policy so unusual that Vermont is the only other state that allows it.

“Every vote weighs the same,” Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s cast by a billionaire or a homeless person.”

Under the state constitution, there’s only one group that’s not entitled to vote: “Persons under guardianship for reasons of mental illness.”

That situation is “not super common,” said Lewiston Town Clerk Kathleen Montejo, and usually arises when somebody who has power of attorney wants to cast their ward’s vote. Since proxy voting isn’t allowed, she said, they can’t.

Maine is so committed to the idea that everyone should be able to vote that its constitution even includes a provision exempting voters from arrest for many crimes on election days while they’re going to the polls, casting their ballot or heading home afterward. (See box.)

Voters facing charges of treason, a felony or breach of peace can be taken into custody during those times, however.

Generally, those who are at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen and a resident of the municipality where they want to vote are free to cast a ballot.

Dunlap said the state looks at where someone lives broadly. It basically comes down to where they spent the night before they go to vote.

“That can be under a bridge,” he said, or it can be a shelter, a dorm, a house or most anything.

Montejo said that homeless Mainers do show up at the polls regularly, particularly for presidential races. They’re asked where they spent the previous night, she said, so election workers can figure out which polling place they should use.

Whether it’s under an overpass or on someone’s couch, she said, they’re entitled to vote in the place that was their most recent residence, even if it was just for a night.

Though Republicans are pushing legislation in many states to add new restrictions on those who want to vote, to combat voter fraud, Maine hasn’t followed suit. Nationally, researchers say, little evidence exists for any type of voter fraud.

Dunlap, a member of President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, said there’s never been a problem with Maine’s elections.

Dunlap said that over the years, the Legislature has supported “a fairly progressive agenda” to make voting easier for Mainers, including those who are living overseas or serving in the military.

Overseas voters merely have to return their absentee ballot like everyone else, Dunlap said. Once, he said, he tried without success to help a teacher who worked in rural Pakistan cast an absentee ballot the day before the election.

To do it, Dunlap said, would have required the teacher take a 150-mile donkey trek to the U.S. embassy, which proved too daunting for even the most hardcore voter.

Other states make it harder for those overseas. Dunlap said that Alabama, for instance, requires two witnesses and a notary before it will accept an overseas ballot. That standard is virtually impossible for someone in “a foxhole in Afghanistan” or other difficult locale, he said.

Maine is one of 15 states that allow people to register on Election Day itself. Some states have deadlines weeks ahead of time, which blocks some potential voters who don’t get on the rolls in time.

“The right to vote is the only right that you have to sign up for,” Dunlap said, so making it as easy as possible is a worthy goal.

He said Maine’s no-excuse-needed absentee ballot policy also serves to encourage people to vote. Early voting is increasingly common, with more than 600 people in Lewiston alone already casting their ballots this year.

Many other states set specific rules so that only narrow categories of people can vote early.

Maine is one of only two states that allow prisoners to vote, though they have to cast their ballots in their hometown by mail. He said his staff goes to the prisons regularly to update addresses for inmates from Maine who want to vote.

Prisoners who hail from other states, however, are “out of luck,” Dunlap said, and can’t participate.

Montejo said she sometimes runs across people who move to Maine and ‘fess up that they’re not allowed to vote because they are ex-felons. When they find out that Maine lets them vote anyway, she said, “they’re thrilled beyond thrilled.”

Though Vermont also allows prisoners to vote, it adds one restriction to the policy that Maine doesn’t have. Those convicted of election fraud are permanently barred from voting in The Green Mountain State.

There aren’t any centralized figures for how many prisoners or homeless people vote in Maine. But Dunlap said he thinks they’re not that different from everyone else — more likely to cast a ballot in presidential elections or if there’s something big on the ballot that means something to them.

Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for Justice in Portland says its “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” initiative has registered more than 2,350 homeless and low-income people in recent years.

scollins@sunjournal.com

Maine Constitution

Article II – Electors

Section 1. Qualifications of electors; written ballot; military servicemen; students. Every citizen of the United States of the age of 18 years and upwards, excepting persons under guardianship for reasons of mental illness, having his or her residence established in this State, shall be an elector for Governor, Senators and Representatives, in the city, town or plantation where his or her residence has been established, if he or she continues to reside in this State; and the elections shall be by written ballot….

Section 2. Electors exempt from arrests on election days. Electors shall, in all cases, except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest on the days of election, during their attendance at, going to, and returning therefrom.

Section 3. Exemption from military duty. No elector shall be obliged to do duty in the militia on any day of election, except in time of war or public danger.

 

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