Portland, Maine — A Maine initiative aimed at limiting the ability of transgender students to participate in sports has been removed from the ballot due to invalid signatures, the Secretary of State ruled Tuesday.
A proposal from a parent group to protect girls’ sports in Maine was scheduled to go before voters in November. He would have asked voters whether they want to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms and sports based on the sex identified on a child’s birth certificate.
Maine Secretary of State Sheena Bellows, who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Tuesday that her staff found that more than 12,000 signatures on the referendum petition were invalid. That leaves the petition a few hundred short of the 67,682 votes needed for the ballot measure initiative, Bellows said.
Bellows’ decision is a setback for the national movement to limit or ban transgender students from sports. Maine emerged as battlefield The issue came up last year after a public spat between Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is serving her final year in office over term limits, and President Donald Trump.
“We take the integrity of petitions as seriously as we take the security of the vote,” Bellows said. “It is really important that anyone seeking to put an initiative on the ballot follows the law.”
The petitioners have 10 days to appeal Bellows’ decision. Representatives of Maine Girls Sports Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but indicated last week that they would continue to push for the initiative to appear on the ballot. The group will also have the ability to try to gain a lead on future ballots, Bellows said.
The Secretary of State’s Office issued a recommended decision on the initiative last week that said the petition “does not meet the constitutional minimum” for valid signatures. Leland Streiff, chief officer for Protect Girls Sports in Maine, said in a statement that the group “continues our advocacy for the ballot measure to protect girls sports.”
At least 19 states have laws prohibiting transgender girls and women from using girls’ and women’s bathrooms in public schools and, in some cases, other government facilities, private schools or public places. One law – in Montana – has been suspended by a court.
At least 30 states have laws or other state-level policies that seek to prevent transgender girls and women from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. The courts prevented the implementation of some laws.
None of the laws regarding bathrooms or sports restrictions were reached through ballot measures. Two other Democratic-controlled states — Colorado and Washington — have sports-related laws on the ballot in November.
Restrictions on both fronts have been adopted in the past five years, and Trump has supported them. Since his return to office last year Expired agreements With school districts to protect transgender students and signed on Executive order To limit sports participation for transgender athletes.
Opponents of the ballot initiative in Maine said Tuesday they agreed with Bellows’ decision. David Farmer, director of the Free and Fair Schools Campaign, which opposed the question, said the petitioners “failed to follow the rules.”
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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.