Shenna Bellows, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, removed a ballot question on transgender athletes Tuesday that she had previously cleared to go before voters in November. She cited evidence that thousands of petition signatures submitted by the measure’s proponents were not valid.
Multiple people who collected the signatures required to get the question on the ballot were found to have violated the state’s rules for such petitions, according to Ms. Bellows. Some submitted signatures from voters who later testified that they had never signed the petition, or even seen it, according to her written decision. Others left petitions unattended and then falsely signed oaths that they had witnessed every signature.
“My decision is grounded in the facts, the evidence presented and the laws of the state,” Ms. Bellows said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Nothing outside my role as secretary has entered into this decision.”
The proponents have 10 days to appeal her decision to the state’s Superior Court, Ms. Bellows said. The court may uphold her decision, reject it and reinstate the question on the ballot, or order further review of the petition.
The question, proposed by a group called Protect Girls Sports in Maine, would require schools to restrict girls’ athletic teams, locker rooms, showers and bathrooms to students whose biological sex at birth was female. Richard Uihlein, a Republican megadonor from Illinois, financed the effort to place the question on the ballot.
Under the state’s nondiscrimination law, transgender girls are currently allowed to play on girls’ sports teams.
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