Ballot order determined for six bond issues seeking $146 million

AUGUSTA – Maine voters will be asked to approve $146 million in bonds on Election Day, Nov. 6.

As required by law, the order of the ballot was determined by a drawing on Tuesday morning. Julie Flynn of the election division held up a silver bowl while Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky picked out folded pieces of paper to determine the fall line up.

The first referendum question will ask voters to approve $10 million for affordable housing and $2 million for housing for victims of domestic abuse.

Question 2 will seek a $5 million bond for biomedical and marine research and development by Maine-based nonprofit and state research institutions.

Question 3 is the largest of the ballot entries, seeking $61 million for highways and bridges, airports, public transit and ferry facilities as well as development of rail, trail and marine infrastructure. The bond will make the state eligible for $120 million in matching federal transportation funds.

Question 4 will seek approval for $15 million for repairs and improvements to public schools.

Question 5 will seek a $17 million bond issue which will include $6 million for water pollution control; $1 million for drinking water protection projects which control runoff from solid waste landfills; $1.5 million for faulty septic systems; $1 million to eliminate overboard sewer discharges; $3 million to protect drinking water threatened by public health problems; $2 million for farm pollution control projects, $1 million for the Potato Marketing Improvement Fund; and lesser amounts to eliminate tire stockpiles, expand public infrastructure and promote drought damage control.

The last ballot item, Question 6, will ask for approval of a $36.7 million bond for improvements at the state’s public universities, Maine Maritime Academy and other public learning centers.

At the drawing, captured by several television crews, Gwadosky said conventional wisdom has held that a referendum at the top of the ballot stands a better chance of passage than one at the bottom because voters concerned with spending will take it out on the bottom ballot questions. If such was ever true, it no longer has any effect in this day and age of sophisticated public relations, the secretary of state said. If a bond item or referendum question is well-explained to the public, it will receive support, regardless of its position on the ballot, he said.

For only the fourth time in the last 20 years, there are no initiative questions on the ballot, Gwadosky said. In the last legislative session, efforts to limit initiative questions were rejected by the House and Senate despite support from Gov. Angus King.

Last November’s ballot included three initiatives, two constitutional amendments and a question posed by the Legislature, but, for the first time since 1982, no bond issues.

The lack of bond proposals in 2000 puts the state in better position this year to take on additional long-term financial obligations, state Treasurer Dale McCormick said.

“We did not have a bond issue last year, and that was a big savings,” McCormick said. The Treasury’s Web page also notes that Maine’s general obligation debt decreased in 2000 to 1.5 percent of the state’s total personal income.

The previous year, 1999, voters approved a $154 million bond package, the largest that had appeared on a Maine ballot in a decade.

Maine traditionally is close to the top of state voting percentages and Gwadosky sees no drop in the coming November election. With congressional or gubernatorial candidates on the ballot, the voter turnout is normally at 64 percent in Maine. With just referendum questions to be decided, that drops to about 50 percent. Both percentages are among the highest in the country, he said.

The national organization of secretaries of state has considered instituting a national holiday for Election Day or moving the election date to Saturdays, Gwadosky said. Making Election Day a national holiday was suggested on Monday by former President Jimmy Carter as a way of increasing voter participation.

Maine officials will investigate anything to improve voting participation, Gwadosky said.

California is leading the way on Internet voting, Gwadosky said. In two years, voters in Maine will be allowed to vote on computers at the polls. If no complications arise, two years later voters will be allowed to vote on computers at locations around the state, in addition to traditional polling places. If that works, voters will be allowed to vote from their homes over the Internet in six years, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.