Maine Question 1, 2009

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Maine Question 1 was a voter referendum conducted in Maine in 2009 that rejected a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. The measure passed 53%–47% on November 3, 2009.

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is invited to vote on a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new law. In some countries, it is synonymous with a plebiscite or a vote on a ballot question.

Maine State of the United States of America

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Maine is the 12th smallest by area, the 9th least populous, and the 38th most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. It is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and northwest respectively. Maine is the easternmost state in the contiguous United States, and the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes. It is known for its jagged, rocky coastline; low, rolling mountains; heavily forested interior; and picturesque waterways, as well as its seafood cuisine, especially lobster and clams. There is a humid continental climate throughout most of the state, including in coastal areas such as its most populous city of Portland. The capital is Augusta.

Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in the U.S. state of Maine since December 29, 2012. A bill for the legalization of such marriages was approved by voters, 53-47 percent, on November 6, 2012, as Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first U.S. states to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. Election results were certified by the Maine Secretary of State's office and the Governor of Maine on November 29.

Contents

The outcome of the referendum was reversed by Maine voters three years later when voters approved Maine Question 1, 2012, which legalized same-sex marriage in the state again.

Legislation

In January 2009, a bill to allow same-sex couples to legally marry in Maine was introduced in the Maine Legislature. [1] [2] On April 30, 2009, the Senate rejected an amendment to put the issue up for a voter referendum 22–13 and passed the bill 21–14. [3] [4] On May 5, 2009, the Maine House of Representatives passed the bill 89–57, [5] [6] [7] and on the following day, Gov. John Baldacci signed the bill into law to take effect 90 days thereafter. [8] [9]

Maine Legislature The bi-cameral Legislature of the State of Maine

The Maine Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. The Legislature convenes at the State House in Augusta, where it has met since 1832.

Maine House of Representatives lower house of the Maine state legislature

The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 members representing an equal number of districts across the state. Each voting member of the House represents around 8,800 citizens of the state. Because it is a part-time position, members of the Maine House of Representatives usually have outside employment as well. Members are limited to four consecutive terms of two years each, but may run again after two years.

John Baldacci American politician

John Elias Baldacci is an American politician who served as the 73rd Governor of Maine from 2003 to 2011. A Democrat, he also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.

Ballot question efforts

On May 7, 2009, opponents of the law filed the necessary paperwork to launch a campaign to put the law up for a vote in the November elections, giving them until 90 days after the legislature adjourned to collect at least 55,087 valid signatures to put the measure on the ballot. [10] In June 2009, Stand for Marriage Maine, the coalition group leading the veto effort, announced it had hired Schubert Flint Public Affairs, which had worked on the Proposition 8 effort in California, to handle public relations for the veto effort. [11] In July 2009, No on 1/Protect Maine Equality was formed to oppose the veto. On September 2, 2009, the Secretary of State of Maine verified that the opponents had submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures and certified the ballot question for November. [12] [13]

California State of the United States of America

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

Public relations (PR) is the practice of deliberately managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. This differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. Public relations is the idea of creating coverage for clients for free, rather than marketing or advertising. But now advertising is also a part of greater PR Activities. An example of good public relations would be generating an article featuring a client, rather than paying for the client to be advertised next to the article. The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders and ultimately persuade them to maintain a positive or favorable view about the organization, its leadership, products, or political decisions. Public relations professionals typically work for PR and marketing firms, businesses and companies, government, and public officials as PIOs and nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit organizations. Jobs central to public relations include account coordinator, account executive, account supervisor, and media relations manager.

The Secretary of State of Maine is elected by the Legislature in that U.S. state. The basis of the office is Article V of the Maine Constitution. The Maine Secretary of State is responsible for administering elections, the Maine State Archives, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and for chartering corporations. The Secretary of State is elected at the start of the first session of the Maine Legislature for a two-year term, concurrent with the other constitutional officers of Maine. The incumbent is Matthew Dunlap, who took office in January 2013. Dunlap previously held the office from January 2005 to January 2011.

Polling

Question 1 asked: "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

Date of opinion pollConducted by Sample size
(likely voters)		YesNoUndecidedMargin of Error
14–16 September 2009 [14] Research 2000 600 48% 46% 6% ±4.0%
23–27 September 2009 [15] Democracy Corps 800 41% 50% 9% ±3.5%
30 September – 7 October 2009 [16] Pan Atlantic 401 42.9% 51.8% 5.3% ±4.9%
16–19 October 2009 [17] Public Policy Polling 1130 48%48% 4% ±2.9%
20–22 October 2009 [18] Pan Atlantic 400 42% 53% 4% ±4.9%
26–28 October 2009 [19] Research 2000 600 47% 48% 5% ±4.0%
31 October – 1 November 2009 [20] Public Policy Polling 1133 51% 47% 2% ±2.9%

Voting results

The question posed on the ballot was, "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?" A vote of "Yes" would repeal the law, while a vote of "No" would uphold the law. [21] The vote was held on November 3, 2009.

Question 1: People's Veto
An Act To End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom
Choice Votes %
Yes check.svg Yes300,84852.9
No 267,828 47.1
Total votes568,676100.00

Post-election

Just after midnight on election night, consultant Frank Schubert of Stand for Marriage Maine declared, "The institution of marriage has been protected in Maine and across this nation." [22] The No on 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign conceded defeat two hours later. [23] Supporters of same-sex marriage pledged to continue the fight, while opponents said they would work to introduce a constitutional amendment to keep marriage between one man and one woman. [24]

A legal battle continued as the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices attempts to force the National Organization for Marriage to respond to subpoenas for the names of its donors in connection with the referendum. The Commission has won consistently in both state and federal courts, most recently on May 29, 2013. [25] On August 4, 2015, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied an attempt by the National Organization for Marriage for a stay on releasing the list while its case against a prior Ethics Commission ruling was pending. [26] On August 24, the Donors list was released. [26] Donations were as follows:

Contributor Total Contribution
Sean Fieler $1,250,000
John Templeton $300,000
Terry Caster $300,000
Knights of Columbus $140,000
Richard Kurtz $50,000
Benjamin Brown $200
Unitemized (less than $100 each) $5,279

See also

Other same-sex marriage referendums

Related Research Articles

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Same-sex marriage in Washington state same-sex marriage in Washington State

Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Washington state since December 6, 2012.

Same-sex marriage legislation in the United States

In response to court action in a number of states, the United States federal government and a number of state legislatures passed or attempted to pass legislation either prohibiting or allowing same-sex marriage or other types of same-sex unions.

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The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is an American non-profit political organization established in 2007 to work against the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. It was formed in 2007 specifically to pass California Proposition 8 prohibiting same-sex marriage in California. The group has opposed civil union legislation and gay adoption, and has fought against allowing transgender individuals to use bathrooms that accord with their gender identity. Brian S. Brown has served as the group's president since 2010.

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Dennis S. Damon is an American politician from Maine. Damon served as a Democratic State Senator from Maine's 5th, then following redistricting, 28th District, representing much of Hancock County, including the population centers of Bar Harbor and Ellsworth from 2002 to 2010.

Same-sex marriage in New England

Even before the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling making same-sex marriage legal across all the states of the United States, same-sex marriage was legal in all of the New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, as well as in the neighboring states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. The New England region has been noted for being the nucleus of the same-sex marriage movement in the United States, with the region having among the most widespread and earliest legal support of any region. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage, to be followed by three more states between October 2008 and June 2009. This followed Vermont being the first-in-the-nation with civil unions in 2000. Before the 2012 election, California (2008), Iowa (2009), New York (2011) and the District of Columbia (2010) had been the only U.S. jurisdictions outside New England to have performed same-sex marriages, though same-sex marriages in California had been halted following the passage of Proposition 8.

Mary L. Bonauto is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has worked to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and has been referred to by US Representative Barney Frank as "our Thurgood Marshall." She began working with the Massachusetts-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, now named GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) organization in 1990. A resident of Portland, Maine, Bonauto was one of the leaders who both worked with the Maine legislature to pass a same-sex marriage law and to defend it at the ballot in a narrow loss during the 2009 election campaign. These efforts were successful when, in the 2012 election, Maine voters approved the measure, making it the first state to allow same-sex marriage licenses via ballot vote. Bonauto is best known for being lead counsel in the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health which made Massachusetts the first state in which same-sex couples could marry in 2004. She is also responsible for leading the first strategic challenges to section three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

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Maryland Question 6

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2015 Maine Question 1

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June 2018 Maine Question 1

Maine Question 1 was a people's veto referendum that appeared on the June 12, 2018 statewide ballot. It sought to reject a law passed by the Maine Legislature that suspended the implementation of ranked choice voting, authorized by Maine voters in a previous referendum, for use in Maine elections until and if an amendment to the Maine Constitution is passed to expressly permit it; failing that, the law would be automatically repealed in 2021. It qualified because supporters of the original referendum collected the necessary number of signatures from registered Maine voters. This vote coincided with primary elections in which party nominees for governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and the Maine Legislature were chosen to run in general elections on November 6.

2011 Maine Question 1

Maine Question 1, "Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?", was a 2011 people's veto referendum that rejected a bill repealing Election Day voter registration in Maine. The vote was held on November 8, 2011 after being placed on the ballot due to supporters collecting the necessary number of signatures. The veto effort was successful, with 237,024 votes in favor of repeal to 155,156 against repeal.

2016 Maine Question 3

Maine Question 3, formally An Act to Require Background Checks for Gun Sales, was a citizen-initiated referendum question that appeared on the Maine November 8, 2016 statewide ballot. It sought to require a background check for virtually all gun transfers in Maine, with some exceptions. As the Maine Legislature and Governor Paul LePage declined to enact the proposal as written, it appeared on the ballot along with elections for President of the United States, Maine's two United States House seats, the Maine Legislature, other statewide ballot questions, and various local elections.

References

  1. ↑ Bill would allow same-sex marriage in Maine Archived 2012-02-20 at the Wayback Machine .
  2. ↑ Battle over gay marriage shifts to Maine
  3. ↑ State Senate backs gay-marriage bill
  4. ↑ Maine Senate Backs Same-Sex Marriage
  5. ↑ Maine House Votes To Pass Gay Marriage Bill
  6. ↑ Maine House passes gay marriage bill
  7. ↑ Maine takes step toward approving gay marriage
  8. ↑ Yvonne Abraham (2009-05-06). "Gay marriage law signed in Maine, advances in N.H". Boston.com. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  9. ↑ Governor Signs LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom
  10. ↑ "People's Veto Drive Initiated". Wabi.tv. 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  11. ↑ "Maine gay marriage foes hire Calif. Prop 8 firm". Guardian. 2009-06-18. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  12. ↑ Gay marriage repeal on ballot
  13. ↑ People's Veto of Bill to Allow Same-sex Marriage Certified by Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap for November Ballot
  14. ↑ ME-Init: Gay marriage all tied up, heading into November
  15. ↑ Democracy Corps - Maine
  16. ↑ "Poll: 51.8% plan to vote no on question 1 | Maine News Updates". Updates.pressherald.mainetoday.com. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  17. ↑ Maine split on gay marriage question
  18. ↑ Swanson, Emily (2009-10-26). "Political Surveys and Election Polls, Trends, Charts and Analysis". Pollster.com. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  19. ↑ ME-Init: Still tied
  20. ↑ TABOR Going Down, Gay Marriage Still Close
  21. ↑ "Question ready for petition against gay marriage". Updates.mainetoday.com. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  22. ↑ "Same-sex marriage supporters concede defeat". Updates.pressherald.mainetoday.com. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  23. ↑ "Fight goes on over marriage". Pressherald.com. 2010-03-04. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  24. ↑ Backers of same-sex marriage pledge to keep up Maine fight
  25. ↑ Long, Robert (May 30, 2013). "Maine high court rejects appeal to shield names of donors to campaign against gay marriage". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  26. 1 2 Cousins, Christopher (August 24, 2015). "National Organization for Marriage files 2009 donors list". Maine Sun Journal. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
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