Maine anti-trans school sports and bathroom vote blocked after 12,000 invalid signatures
Maine secretary of state Shenna Bellows (Image: Getty Images)
Maine’s secretary of state has removed a proposed referendum that would restrict transgender students’ access to school sports and bathrooms from the November ballot after finding more than 12,000 petition signatures were invalid.
The initiative, backed by Protect Girls Sports in Maine, would have asked voters whether public schools should restrict access to bathrooms and sports based on a child’s sex at birth.
Secretary of state Shenna Bellows said staff found more than 12,000 signatures could not be counted, leaving the campaign a few hundred short of the 67,682 required to qualify. Bellows said: “We take the integrity of the petitions just as seriously as we take the security of voting. It’s really important that anyone seeking to place a initiative on the ballot follow the law,” as per The Independent.
Petitioners have 10 days to appeal the decision. Leyland Streiff, listed as the group’s principal officer, said Protect Girls Sports in Maine was “continuing our defence of the Protect Girls Sports ballot measure.”
Why the petition was rejected
Last week, the secretary of state’s office released a recommended decision stating the petition “does not meet the constitution threshold” of valid signatures.
Bellows, a Maine Democrat, is running for governor. She previously served in the Maine Senate.
Wider trans school restrictions
The Maine decision comes amid a wider push in the US to restrict trans students’ participation in school life. Trans girls and women are banned from using women’s bathrooms at schools in at least 19 US states. At least 30 states have laws or policies aiming to stop transgender girls and women from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
The legal fight has also reached the courts, with the US Supreme Court set to consider state bans on transgender women in sports.
Opponents of the Maine initiative welcomed the ruling. David Farmer of the Campaign for Free and Fair Schools said the petitioners “failed to follow the rules,” as per ABC News.
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