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Signature effort takes place
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By MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 07/06/2008

By MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer

Signature-gathering volunteers seeking to repeal Maine legislators’ April decision to comply with federal REAL ID provisions staked out civic celebrations across the state this weekend.

As the results of their signature collection push filter in, however, leaders of the effort to bring the REAL ID question before voters in November are still uncertain how close they have come to the 55,087-signature threshold.

“I just don’t know,” said Lu Bauer, one of three people coordinating the repeal effort.

“We’ve got a big push on right now. Certainly a lot are being collected.”

The group faces a July 17 deadline to turn in the signatures — equal to a third of the votes cast in the 2006 gubernatorial contest — to the Secretary of State’s office.
If a question is approved for November’s ballot and voters favor the repeal, Maine law would not require driver’s license applicants to prove they legally reside in the United States.

Nearly 600 volunteers targeted approximately 20 locations throughout Maine on Friday, said Bauer, a Brunswick resident.

Bauer is working with Kathleen McGee, of Bowdoinham, and Chris Miller, of Gray, to coordinate the repeal effort.

At least five volunteers circulated petitions in Winslow on Friday at Independence Day festivities that reportedly attracted 30,000 people. Volunteers also targeted celebrations in, among other towns, Athens, Bangor, Bar Harbor, Biddeford, Blue Hill and Portland.

A plane towing a banner reading “Sign ‘Repeal REAL ID’ Petition” flew along the coast from south of Portland to Bath and back, Bauer said.

Signature gathering continued on Saturday at the Bath Heritage Days celebration.

On Friday in Bath, Bauer said she collected 400 signatures during her petition circulating stint.

“It’s amazing when people are walking up the path and they see the sign and they run over to the table,” she said. “They’ve been looking for us.”

McGee said on Thursday if the repeal effort does not reach the 55,087-signature threshold, it would be due to limited time for signature collection and not due to a lack of support for repealing the law.
Skip Greenlaw of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools said his group made progress on July 4 gathering signatures to support a repeal of the state’s school-district consolidation law.

Greenlaw, a Stonington resident, collected signatures in his home town and volunteers targeted other towns, including Winslow. The group is attempting to land the question on the November 2009 ballot.
As local officials continue to work on school-district mergers, Greenlaw said he and volunteers continue to find opposition to the law which requires Maine’s 290 school districts to consolidate into approximately 80.

“People are going ahead doing the plans but that doesn’t mean they’re going to vote for it,” Greenlaw said.

Voters must sign off on their towns’ consolidation plans at the polls before districts can merge.

The anti-consolidation group has already secured more than 51,000 signatures, Greenlaw said, and expects to gather 60,000 names — nearly 5,000 beyond the threshold — by August 15.


Matthew Stone — 623-3811, Ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com

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