Senate candidate seeks halt in ballot printing
9/13/08 | 4 comments

Senate candidate seeks halt in ballot printing


By Judy Harrison
BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine — A federal judge will decide whether Maine’s secretary of state must stop printing the Nov. 4 ballot so that the name of an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate may be added or whether Laurie Dobson of Kennebunkport will have to launch a write-in campaign.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock said Friday at the end of a 90-minute hearing that he would issue a decision by Monday on Dobson’s motion for a temporary restraining order. He had not issued a decision as of 5 p.m. Friday.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap denied Dobson a place on the ballot when she failed to submit the required 4,000 valid signatures on nominating petitions by the June 2 deadline. She claims that the petitions she received after that deadline from municipal clerks should have been accepted and would have included enough valid signatures to place her name on the ballot.

Independent candidates had to submit petitions to clerks by May 27 so that the signatures could be validated as those of registered voters. Dobson got her petitions in to the clerks by that date. There was no deadline, however, mandating when clerks had to return the petitions to candidates in order that they could be given to the secretary of state by June 2.

Dobson’s attorney, Jon A. Languet of Topsham, argued Friday that his client’s and her supporters’ constitutional rights were violated when clerks did not get the petitions back to her in time for her to submit them to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardiner urged the judge to deny Dobson’s request. She argued that because the burden of meeting the deadline is on candidates, Dobson should have submitted her petitions earlier to municipal clerks to give them time to validate signatures and to return them to her by mail.

Gardiner also told Woodcock that ordering the secretary of state to stop printing ballots so Dobson’s name could be added would disrupt the election process and double the $350,000 cost of printing ballots. She argued that the harm to the public far outweighed any harm Dobson would suffer by not having her name on the ballot.

To issue a temporary restraining order, Woodcock must find that Dobson most likely would succeed at obtaining a permanent order. Federal judges rarely issue temporary restraining orders.

Dobson attended but did not speak at Friday’s hearing.

“I continue to fight for the right to be on the ballot,” she said in a news release. “I expect the court to provide justice and reverse the entrenched prejudice against independent nonparty candidates.”

During Friday’s hearing, Woodcock suggested that a solution to the problem might be a process that had candidates submit petitions earlier to municipal clerks but gave them a deadline by which they had to be returned to candidates.

After the hearing, Dunlap, who served in the Legislature before being elected secretary of state, disagreed with that idea.

“I was a House candidate and it was up to me to meet the deadlines,” he said. “It’s not the obligation of the clerks to get them in on time. It’s the obligation of the candidates because they are their petitions.”

Dobson is the second independent candidate for U.S. Senate not to have a place on the November ballot. Herbert Hoffman last month launched a write-in campaign after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court found that some of his petitions had been improperly validated by the secretary of state. The number of invalidated signatures put him under the 4,000 threshold required.

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Comments
4 comments on this item
On 9/13/08 at 7:52 AM, freedomfighter wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The tricks the State of Maine used to keep Herbert Hoffman off the ballot are absolutely un-American. The State of Maine should be very ashamed. My signature on a petition can be disqualified because somebody else on that page isn't a registered voter. What kind of commie made up that rule. I'm sure it must have originated in Russia.

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On 9/13/08 at 6:31 PM, Johninphilippines wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Could the State of Maine or/and the federal legal office handling this case, be cordially requested to issue a statement concerning the actual statutes and laws that relate to this situation, and exactly what the infractions were...in more of a clearer format? Seems people on all sides are beginning to get bogged-down in verbosity. If Maine (State of) could give the facts of the Presumption of Law that pertains to this situation, I think everyone would appreciate hearing it. But...(always the "but")...hearing the outcome will possibly bring, from the judges' decision, exactly what the terminologies are that warranted the decisions. If there are actual statutes regarding a certain time-line in which to file, with absolutely no "grace periods thereafter",...let it be publically known. Hang in there Ms. Dobson.

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On 9/14/08 at 12:59 AM, Johninphilippines wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Temper...temper..."freedomfighter"! this is America...and the State is Maine. How dare you to think and feel this way about our representation like this? Calm down and concentrate on Seamore returning home, and visit him in East Machias when you get a chance to calm down and weather the storm of all this gorilla's recent fame! Never mind about the petition. That is not important. Didn't you know there are only 2 public parties in the US? Republican and Democrat? Now, calm down and go to the ref and pop a Bud.

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On 9/15/08 at 5:48 PM, glenna wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It takes outstanding courage to accept the responsibilities of American citizenship. This country was built on genuine courage. The framers of this nation's Constitution and Bill of Rights risked not just their lands, homes and all of their financial well being, but their lives and those of their families as well. We see fragments of that same kind of courage in the men and women who wear the uniforms that serve and protect us both in our communities (law enforcement, firefighters and EMT) and in the branches of our military. We should be seeing it in the leadership of our political parties, both nationally and at the state level but I certainly don't see it here in Maine (nor do I see it in the nation Republican party). Here in Maine Herbert Hoffman was prevented a place on the ballot because the Maine State Democratic Party was fearful Hoffman might drain votes away from Tom Allen. Apparently they never considered people might vote for Hoffman instead of Susan Collins. Now it appears the same fear is being used to prevent Ms. Dobson's name from appearing on the ballot. If she turned in her petitions on time to the appropriate Municipal Clerks for signature verification, then that should be sufficient and the Secretary of State should take up his issue with the municipalities. Of course, the fact that so many of the state executive offices are appointed by the state legislature, instead of having to run for the offices and be elected by the people (as occurs in many other states) might explain the monopoly the Maine Democratic Party (Maine Dictator Party?) has held on this state for over thirty years. It's time the voters remembered when Maine really DID lead instead of hid behind a meaningless motto. As a side issue, could it be that the Maine Democratic Party isn't all that sure we'll support Allen even if everyone else has been eliminated? I, for one, don't like being dictated to.

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