
State Rep. Michael Brennan and Former Portland Mayor with Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau in front of a Portrait of the Late Congressman John Lewis.
Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Representative Michael Brennan, and former Mayor of Portland, called on the federal government to take action to protect all Americans’ freedom to vote by passing essential legislation including the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the reconciliation bill which includes election infrastructure funding.
“Maine’s election laws provide the foundation for our accessible and secure elections with high rates of voter registration,” said Secretary Bellows in a press release issued by her office this afternoon. “I’m proud of this, but sadly right now our success stands in stark contrast to the regressive laws being passed in other states. We need action from the federal government to ensure the constitutional right to vote for every American.”
Secretary Bellows is Maine’s 50th and first female, Secretary of State.
In 2021, Maine advanced voting rights by passing laws to enact online voter registration so that Maine citizens can register to vote from the comfort of their home or on a mobile device and ongoing absentee ballot status to allow seniors and people with disabilities to sign up for absentee ballots to be automatically mailed to them for every election. Maine also reinforced the importance of student voting by allowing Maine student IDs to be used as proof of identification in the voter registration process. Additional new laws include strenghtening voter list maintenance efforts and codifying process improvements implemented mid-pandemic which ease workflows for our hardworking municipal clerks in busy election seasons.
Maine is already a leader in democracy and in ensuring that all citizens have the freedom to vote. Maine’s electoral system reflects many of the voters expressed in the For the People Act, but there is more to be done to ensure that all across our country our elections are modern, accessible and fair. This federal legislation would bring policies that have already benefited Maine voters, such as same-day voter registration, a clean election system, ballot drop boxes, automatic voter registration and no-excuse voting to other states. Secretary Bellows outlined the policies in the For the People Act which align with Maine election law in her testimony before the House Committee on Administration in February.
“When I was mayor of Portland, I didn’t always like the people in Augusta telling us what to do. When I served in the Legislature, at times I didn’t like the federal government telling us what to do,” said Rep. Michael Brennan. “But on the matter of voting, our country must provide all Americans with uniform national standards to ensure everyone has equal access to voting.”
(mhn.com is curious as to whether Mayor Kate of Portland the Portland City Council agrees with the above press release).