Voting 2020: March 3, June 9, November 3

In a few days Mainers have some choices.

March 3 is Super Tuesday when many starts have their president Primary. So it is in Maine too. According to Maine.gov:

The 129th Maine Legislature enacted a Presidential Primary law in 2019 (PL 2019, Chapter 445), for the purpose of allowing Maine voters to designate their preference for the nomination of their party’s candidate.  In order to participate in the Presidential Primary, each of the 3 qualified parties had until November 1, 2019 to file a certification with the Secretary of State.

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party filed this certification and will participate in the Presidential Primary election, but also will hold caucuses for conducting other party-building activities.  The Green Independent Party chose not to participate in the Presidential Primary election but will hold party caucuses for voting for the Presidential candidate and conducting other party-building activities. 

In order to qualify for the Presidential Primary Election ballot, Democratic and Republican candidates had to circulate petitions and submit at least 2,000 signatures of registered voters who are enrolled in their party to the Secretary of State’s Division of Elections by 5:00 p.m. on December 23, 2019. The following are the final list of candidates for each party. There are no declared write-in candidates for either party. 

Democratic Party Candidate Listing – Final as of the 12/23/2019 filing deadline

Republican Party Candidate Listing – Final as of the 12/23/2019 filing deadline

SO all that boils down to…who do you want to be on the ballot for the presidential election?  This is where it gets narrowed down.  The republican list has one choice and that is Donald Trump.  The democrats have a few and a few of those people have dropped out. So choose wisely so you vote for someone who is still in the race.  This is part of the process to narrow it down to one for the general election in November.

Mainers have the Special State Referendum: A People’s Veto petition to prevent a vaccine law from taking effect. The law petitioned is, “An Act to Protect Maine Children and Students from Preventable Diseases by Repealing Certain Exemptions from the Laws Governing Immunization Requirements.”

This wording on this one is confusing…and that is based on the ruled how the questions need to written.  SO it reads: “Do you want to reject the new law that removes religious and philosophical exemptions to requiring immunization against certain communicable diseases for students to attend schools and colleges and for employees of nursery schools and health care facilities?”

It is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.

In this case, you’re voting to: ‘yes—veto the law’ or ‘no—allow it to take effect.’

Still confused? Me too.  Ballotpedia broke it down like this:

A "yes" vote is to:
-repeal Legislative Document 798, which was designed to eliminate religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccination requirements for K-12 and college students and employees of healthcare facilities, and
-reinstate the law allowing for religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccination requirements.

A "no" vote is to:
-uphold Legislative Document 798, which was designed to eliminate religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccination requirements for students to attend schools and colleges and for employees of healthcare facilities.

BUT wait there is more…Mainers, there is also also have Special Election for State Representative District 128.

Newscenter Maine also pointed out…there is no cut-off date to register to vote at your town office or city hall. If you are not registered to vote, you can do so on the day of the primary at your polling place. You’ll need ID and something with your address.  While opening times vary a bit all polls are close at 8pm.

Then June 9^th we have a state primary.  Where we narrow now candidates for offices other than the office of president.

That leads us to November 3 for a general election.