Maine's Transgender Sports Initiative Halted by Invalid Signatures
State officials invalidated 12,542 signatures after a court-ordered review, leaving the campaign 532 short of the 67,682 needed, Bellows said.
- A Maine initiative to restrict transgender students' participation in sports was removed from the ballot due to invalid signatures.
- Maine's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is running for governor as a Democrat, found that over 12,000 signatures on the petition were invalid.
- The referendum effort drew massive support from conservative groups and significant opposition from LGBTQ+ advocates.
54 Articles
54 Articles
40% of trans athlete question signature gatherers from out of state
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows spoke at the State House on Tuesday, May 26, after invalidating the “Protect Girls Sports in Maine” citizen initiative for the November 2026 ballot. Photo by Matt Junker.During a hearing at the Maine State House earlier this month, the secretary of state’s office heard testimony from an unlikely source: a man calling in from an unnamed cargo ship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. He was joining remotely to …
Anti-trans initiative removed from November ballot in Maine
While Texas Republicans were busy choosing rabidly anti-transgender Attorney General Ken Paxton as their nominee for the U.S. Senate in the Tuesday, March 26 primary, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was busy banning an anti-trans ballot effort from her state’s ballot in the November general election. ErinInTheMorning.com reports that the ballot initiative, bankrolled by anti-trans billionaire Richard Uihlein and promoted by the group “Pr…
Mainers won’t vote on anti-trans measure after it fails to qualify for November ballot
Maine’s Secretary of State announced that a trans sports ban will not appear on the ballot this year after questions about signature gathering resulted in thousands of petitions being tossed out.“Citizen initiatives are direct democracy. Just as we take voting security seriously, we take petition integrity seriously,” said Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.“Unfortunately, some out-of-state circulators failed to meet certain legal requirements fo…
Bellows rules on illegal signature gathering, drops anti-trans initiative from ballot
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has upheld a draft order from her elections staff and ruled that a proposed citizen initiative seeking to roll back rights for transgender children in Maine failed to qualify for the November 2026 general election ballot. State election officials who had conducted a court-ordered review found illegal signature-gathering practices and other defects in petitions submitted by the campaign. “Citizen initiative…
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