Court upholds Secretary of State's casino petition rejection
Maine Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy has upheld a decision by Secretary of State Matt Dunlap in March to reject a citizen petition seeking to give voters the right to vote on allowing a new casino in southern Maine.
Dunlap said that more than half of the 91,000 signatures collected supporting the casino vote were invalid, which led to Horse Racing Jobs Fairness, the organization that spearheaded the $156,000 petition drive, to subsequently appeal the Secretary of State’s decision.
“The court concludes that the procedure followed by the Secretary of State does not require the reversal or invalidation of the entire determination,” Murphy wrote in her decision for the Justice, Business and Consumer Court.
Dunlap’s office said nearly 36,000 of the collected signatures were invalid because the circulator’s oath signature didn’t match a signature on file, according to the Bangor Daily News. Thousands of other signatures were deemed invalid as they didn’t match records of registered voters.
“We are satisfied with the ruling,” Dunlap told the BDN. “We realize that those citizens who signed this petition in good faith may be disappointed, but our job is to ensure that the constitutional requirements are met, and to that end, we are gratified by the ruling.”
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