AUGUSTA – In 2001, Maine went along with most other states and enacted a law allowing banks to sell financial information about their customers – unless Mainers specifically tell them not to.

The King administration and a majority of lawmakers agreed at the time that it made more sense for Maine to stay consistent with 44 other states and the federal government rather than to adopt a more stringent policy.

But some lawmakers didn’t agree then and still don’t agree now. They want financial institutions to have to get consumers’ consent before they release information about matters such as loans, credit history and account transactions.

And with the backing of at least two consumer groups, the Maine Civil Liberties Union and senior citizens’ lobby AARP, they want to take their case directly to the voters.

“I think privacy is part and parcel of what democracy is all about,” said Rep. Marilyn Canavan, a Waterville Democrat and member of the Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee. “Isn’t it one of our rights?”

Canavan stood before more than a dozen supporters wearing brightly colored, homemade dunce caps in the State House last week to mock the notion that Mainers are too dumb to decide for themselves whether their most private records should be sold.

Rep. Benjamin Dudley, D-Portland, is sponsoring the bill, LD 661, calling for a referendum on whether Maine should go back to an “opt in” policy that requires bankers, in effect, to ask first before disclosing customers’ data.

Dudley and the AARP both suggested that the present “opt out” policy aids identity thieves. Dudley said that in 2002, Mainers filed 306 complaints of identity theft and 788 complaints of electronic fraud.

Maine’s present law conforms with a federal law known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires financial services to mail to their customers notices explaining their right to block the sale of information about them.

“These notices are usually very lengthy, with incredibly small print, folded into statements or other information,” said Lori Gramlich of the Dirigo Alliance, a coalition of citizens’ groups claiming memberships of more than 90,000 Mainers.

Supporters urge Mainers to follow the example of voters in North Dakota, who last year rejected a law allowing banks and other institutions to sell customer information without written permission.

Before the nation’s first balloting on financial privacy, opponents of repeal expressed concerns about putting North Dakota out of step with banking rules in most other states and hurting the state’s bank service industry.

In Maine, those opposed to making banks ask first to use customer information have said that conforming with federal law promotes clarity and consistency. They also expressed concerns that banks and credit unions would drop their state charters in favor of federal charters if the present law were repealed.

While it does not mean they would necessarily leave Maine, it would remove them from state regulatory jurisdiction.

Some banks worried that adopting an “opt in” standard would scare away banks that might be interested in locating in Maine.

Bankers also have argued that the ability to share data about customers allows financial institutions to be more efficient, meaning they can charge lower fees.