AUGUSTA, Maine — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows issued a decision Tuesday removing a conservative referendum that would ban transgender girls from female scholastic sports teams from the 2026 ballot.
Bellows, who is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, adopted a deputy’s recommendation that found more than 12,000 signatures invalid, leaving the effort roughly 500 short of the threshold required for ballot access.
The signature drive was undone in part by circulator fraud and misconduct that was uncovered during court-ordered hearings. Two circulators left petition forms unattended at polling places. Another failed to legally consent to Maine’s jurisdiction. A fourth had all 61 of her signatures thrown out after reviewers found none matched voters records. At least one appears forged.
Speaking to reporters on the State House balcony Tuesday two weeks before the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Bellows pushed back on questions about the political implications of her decision.
“Nothing outside of my role as secretary has entered into this decision,” she said. “My decision is grounded in the facts, the evidence, and the arguments that were presented by my professional staff, as well as the two parties who submitted legal briefs on Saturday.”
Bellows also noted that the referendum is not necessarily dead. Proponents would need only about 500 additional signatures to qualify it for the 2027 ballot instead. Parties have 10 days to appeal Tuesday’s ruling to the Maine courts, and judges would be expected to issue final rulings by early summer.
The decision lands amid a crowded Democratic primary in which Bellows is aligned in a three-way alliance with former state Senate President Troy Jackson and former House Speaker Hannah Pingree. Bellows is scheduled to appear with both at a 2:30 p.m. news conference in Portland alongside U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has backed that slate.
The referendum would have also barred transgender girls from private spaces aligning with their gender identities. It was largely bankrolled by Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, who gave $800,000 to the effort last year.
A 2025 poll found 64% of Mainers opposed to transgender female athletes competing in women’s sports, a finding that made the question a potentially potent one for Republicans heading into the fall.
In a statement, the Maine Republican Party made an implicit reference to Bellows’ initial move to remove President Donald Trump from the 2024 primary ballot, which was unanimously overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, saying she has “a bad habit of abusing her power.” But the no side of the referendum said the proponents had failed to follow the rules.
“They are protecting the integrity of our elections,” David Farmer, the campaign manager for a coalition headed by LGBTQ-rights groups, said of Bellows’ office.