Maine § 2655. - Petitions in multiple community water districts

§ 2655.. Petitions in multiple community water districts

Petitions for an election shall be governed by the following provisions.   [PL 1983, c. 463, §4 (NEW).]

1.  Circulation.  Any time the issue of whether to fluoridate a public water supply is submitted to the voters in multiple community water districts pursuant to petition, the petition or petitions shall be circulated and signed in the manner prescribed by Title 30‑A, section 2503, subsection 3, paragraph B, subparagraphs (2) and (3), and shall be dated and gathered within the time frame prescribed by the Constitution of Maine, Article IV, Part Third, Section 18, Subsection 2.

2.  Forms; instructions.  On request of a voter, the Secretary of State shall furnish petition forms to that voter within 10 days of the request. The Secretary of State may charge a reasonable fee for the petitions.

If a voter, at the voter's own expense, wishes to print and furnish the forms rather than have the forms printed and furnished by the Secretary of State, the voter may do so as long as these petition blanks are first approved by the Secretary of State as to form and content. The Secretary of State has 10 days in which to approve the forms. If the forms are found to be unsatisfactory, the Secretary of State shall indicate the manner in which the forms are deficient. Corrected petition forms may be submitted in accordance with the terms in this paragraph.  

The Secretary of State shall prepare complete instructions to advise the signers, circulators, registered petitioners, municipal clerks and election officials as to any statutory and constitutional requirements. The instructions must specify the conditions which have been held to invalidate either individual signatures or complete petitions. The instructions must be printed in bold type or capital letters on the petition.  

3.  Signing; filing.  Petitions may be signed and filed as follows. In multiservice municipalities, petitions may be signed by any registered voter residing within the affected public water system zone of the municipality. All such petitions shall be filed with the appropriate municipality at least 120 days before the next general election. In each municipality in which petitions are filed, the petition or petitions shall be accompanied with the name and address of at least one, but not more than 5, registered voters who shall be the registered petitioners for the purpose of subsection 4. The registered petitioners must reside in the multiple community water district, but need not reside in the municipality in which a petition is filed.

A.   [PL 1987, c. 122, §6 (RP).]

B.   [PL 1987, c. 122, §6 (RP).]

4.  Certification.  Within 20 days after a petition is filed, the municipal clerk shall complete a certificate which states the number of valid signatures on the petition and identifies the relevant multiple community water district or districts involved. The certificate shall be sent by registered mail to the registered petitioners, who shall be responsible for transmitting them to the Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State shall total the number of valid signatures as certified by the municipal clerk. As soon as the total number of certified valid signatures is found to be equal to at least 10% of the total number of votes cast for Governor at the last gubernatorial election in all municipalities which are wholly or partially within the multiple community water district, the Secretary of State shall certify that fact to each municipality which is wholly or partially in the multiple community water district within 48 hours.