Protecting polling places

Supporters of a bill that would remove circulators of initiated petitions from polling places have a legitimate concern about keeping the act of voting as simple and unimpeded as possible, but their proposal goes too far to restrict the circulators. Instead of pushing them 250 feet from a poll’s entrance, as the proposal would do, a modest change in the duties of the poll warden could satisfy both sides.

Maine in 1985 adopted its current law that allows groups to collect signatures at the polls, with the warden charged with keeping order. Before then, petitioners went door-to-door or stood in front of post offices or in shopping areas. Requiring them to go back to this is not exactly an assault on democracy, but the state should have a good reason for changing the current law. One good reason would be that the presence of interest groups soliciting signatures has made polling places less pleasant and so discourages people from going there to vote.

LD 314, presented by Sen. Leo Kieffer and approved in the Senate last week, moves circulators far enough away from the polls that they are effectively barred. That’s a large step for a small problem. If the goal is simply to allow voters to leave polling places without being solicited by petition circulators, wardens could be instructed to ensure that voters have a direct exit that does not force them to walk past the petition tables. With that condition met, the tables could be set up as close to the polls as a warden felt appropriate.

Sen. Kieffer at a public hearing earlier this session also said he wanted to bar the collecting of signatures at polling places to prevent Maine from becoming a laboratory for national interest groups. He has a point. The 1985 law made the threshold for placing referendums on the ballot considerably lower and has resulted a huge increase in the number of referendums to be considered by voters. Not only does this attract national groups, it turns over an undue slice of governing to proposals that are often rough drafts of better legislation and are always inflexible. The solution to this problem, however, is not to ban signature-gatherers but to increase the number of signatures they need to place a question on the ballot.

The House has a chance to redirect LD 314 to keep voting places welcoming to all voters and still let petition circulators gather signatures. Giving voters an unimpeded exit while still allowing petition tables is a solution both sides should be able to live with.