Despite a warning from Maine’s Republican party that a gay rights group supported same day registration, state voters restored the option by a three-to-two margin Tuesday night.
“Maine has long prided itself on high voter participation, sparked by its long-standing practice of Same Day Registration (SDR),” Miles Rapoport, president of Demos and former Connecticut Secretary of State, said in a statement. “Now Maine’s citizens have spoken loud and clear: They will not allow people who want to discourage real participation to diminish Maine’s commitment to democracy.”
The group Maine’s Majority called on Gov. Paul LePage (R), Sens. Olympia Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R) and Maine’s GOP legislative caucus to denounce the newspaper ad, which asked why Equality Maine is “SO INTERESTED IN REPEALING MAINE ELECTION LAWS?”
“By conflating marriage equality with Election Day registration, Maine Republican Party chair Charlie Webster is seeking to tap bigotry and homophobia in order to score points for his pet issue. This is the worst kind of politics,” Maine’s Majority director Chris Korzen said in a statement.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.