Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.

The citizen initiative petition effort – “An Act to Require an Individual to Present Photographic Identification for the Purpose of Voting” has been deemed valid Secretary of State Shenna Bellows confirmed today.

On January 6, 2025, the State received 4,410 petition forms with an estimated 171,562 signatures of voters who support the initiative.  The estimated total number of signatures submitted far exceded the quantity of signatures required to determine the validity of the petition.  The Secretary of State reviewed and certified the first 2,430 of the 4,410 petition forms submitted as the initial stage of the certification process,  Of the first 2,430 petition forms filed with the Secretary of State:  86,904 signatures are valid and 7,285 signatures are invalid.  The number of signatures required to determine the petition to be valid is 67,682.

The initiative will now go to the Legislature for consideration per the Maine Constitution.  The Legislature can choose to enact the bill as written or to send it to a statewide vote in November 2025.

“Maine has a very large population of senior citizens.  Many of them don’t have driver licenses because they no longer drive.  The lack of that photo ID will prevent many in this large population from voting,” said this blogger.