CMP corridor vote will appear on November ballot, Maine high court rules

A public vote that could block plans by Central Maine Power Co. for a 150-mile electricity transmission line will appear on November ballots, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled last week.

The court denied an appeal of a Superior Court judgement finding that the state’s certification of the petition for the vote was valid.

A group of opponents to the planned $1 billion project had petitioned Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap to hold a vote that could disapprove the project. In March, Dunlap certified that the group, No CMP Corridor, had delivered enough valid signatures to create the referendum.

But the certification prompted some supporters of the New England Clean Energy Corridor to disqualify the petition. Most recently, they asked Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy to overturn Dunlap’s certification, claiming some of the 69,714 approved signatures were invalid because notaries involved had participated in other No CMP Corridor activities.

In April, Murphy found there was a “competent record” to support Dunlap’s certification, and last Thursday, Maine’s highest court agreed.

In affirming the lower court decision, the SJC found that the fraud allegations weren’t substantial enough to prompt an investigation.

“Based on all of the evidence presented, combined with the absence of any suggestion of fraud raised by municipal officers, the Secretary of State reasonably determined that such broad assertions were insufficient grounds to launch an additional investigation of the entire campaign,” the court opinion read.

In a statement, Tom Saviello, who drafted the referendum question and was the lead petitioner, said in a statement, “I’m just so pleased that the people of the state of Maine will finally have a voice in this corridor … Regardless of how much money CMP and their foreign investors want to throw at frivolous lawsuits, 66,000 Maine voters signed petitions to bring this issue to a referendum, which is well over the threshold to trigger a vote.”